


I Can Do This

by maggiemerc



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Crack, F/F, Fluff and Crack, Humor, Oh God What Did I Do, Romance, a little plot
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-29
Updated: 2016-12-06
Packaged: 2018-05-29 19:23:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 43,178
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6389998
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/maggiemerc/pseuds/maggiemerc
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kara and Alex Danvers might be an alien puppy and human disaster (respectively), but they’re tenacious as hell. Whether facing down alien invasions, astute sort of girlfriends, or their massive, and out of this world, extended family these two women will always get the job done, or do something incredibly stupid while trying.</p><p>Like kissing Cat Grant.</p><p>Or moving in with Astra the evil alien invader.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Sunken Submarine Rendezvous

**Author's Note:**

> Holy crap I wrote something. These will primarily be little snippets. Updated on Mondays. Definitely NO giant epic plot involving a Darkseid invasion or Lobo or anything. That would be insane.

This Kryptonian, the one who doesn’t fly around in a cape wearing bright blue tights, was…terrifying.

Cat wouldn’t want anyone to know that. She kept her chin raised and her eyes cool and she’d always been very good about staying calm. Her heart barely beat faster.

But Non, the man from Krypton, filled Cat with fear she’d never known. He wasn’t as big—as sturdy—as the other Kryptonians Cat had seen, but he was cruel. Little curl of his lips. Eyes like glass. He was a killer with no desire for restraint and he could shatter her with a flick of his finger.

He stepped towards her and Kara, her assistant, gasped. That seemed to pull on Non’s cruel smile. Seemed to make it wider.

“You and Supergirl have such a…public relationship.”

“We do,” Cat said cooly. She didn’t need her heart to thump any faster. Didn’t need him to hear her terror even though is was a drumbeat in her ear.

James winced. The other members of her staff, useless behind the glass, just watched.

Non took another step and Cat held her ground. “You called her your friend.”

“I like to think she is.”

He nodded. “Of course.” His hand was suddenly around her throat. No gust of wind to herald the movement. Just a vice clamped around her neck. “But how close?”

Cat couldn’t call it a noose. She’d never experienced a noose, and his hand was quite broad—supportive. But the pull as he picked her up by the throat was immense. One of her shoes slipped off the end of her toe.

“Will she come for you?”

They were suddenly on the balcony, with her swung out over the edge and Cat, in the moment of terror that would loosen a lesser woman’s sphincter, she chose to focus on one thing.

Kara.

Standing just beside James Olsen and in front of the rest of the staff and watching her. The others watched the scene. Kara watched _her_. Eyes wide. Sharp. Maintaining eye contact.

Small comfort.

Because suddenly the vice around her throat was gone and she was in free fall. Twisting and turning with nothing to hold onto. No control. Just the wind and her scream in her ears and the ground racing towards her.

And then it was racing in parallel and warm arms were holding her close and she was soaring over the heads of startled onlookers.

“I’ve got you,” Supergirl said.

It was enough to make Cat faint.

***

Let it be known, for the record, that she did not faint.

She might have blacked out for half a second. From free fall to being caught to racing through the city would be enough to make anyone woozy.

And Supergirl was holding her close—gently. Unlike the last time Supergirl caught her after she was tossed off her own damn building.

“What is it with Kryptonians throwing me off my own building,” she shouted over the roar of wind. They were flying fast and it was not unlike driving with the top down.

Supergirl grimaced. “I’m sorry about that Ms. Grant. Non is—“

“Right behind us.”

Supergirl glanced over her shoulder. “Hold on.”

It was a…a growl. Low and guttural and yes, Cat held on. She had her arms wrapped around Supergirl’s neck and she dug in—at least as much as she could—Supergirl had shoulders like steel. She made herself small and she watched the man flying behind them with that mad scowl on his face.

“Is he insane?”

“He’s upset. His wife was killed by some friends of mine recently.”

“He blames you.”

“Yes.”

“There…are more of them, Supergirl.”

Like flies they darted in. Dark shapes against the bright sky. One. Two. Half a dozen.

“Are they _all_ Kryptonians?”

“Criminals. Their prison crash landed here.”

“It’s a wonder anyone from Krypton died. Seems like your whole planet landed here.”

Supergirl didn’t speak, but Cat had clearly struck a nerve with her joke.

Then again she hadn’t seen a Superdad or Supermom, so it was a good bet Supergirl came here alone. Which would mean she hadn’t struck a nerve, she’d poured salt in a wound.

Unless she was related to the aliens chasing them.

“Did you land with them?”

Supergirl didn’t answer. Instead she dodged the streak of heat coming from one of the alien’s eyes. And more beams from a second. They instantly melted the thick glass of a skyscraper and she heard the startled screams of the people inside.

Bystanders wounded in a war between gods.

God she was sounding like Lois L—

A SUV full of a terrified family hurtled towards them.

Cat screamed and Supergirl spun in mid air. One arm crushed Cat close and the other reached out to catch the SUV.

Time didn’t stop.

But it was as if the air around them grew thick. Supergirl, the SUV, they slowed down.

Supergirl gritted her teeth. Grunted with exertion. Then she screamed as she streaked up the side of a building and left the SUV on its roof.

“Hold on,” she said, never slowing down.

She just flew faster. Fast enough that the wind hurt and Cat had trouble keeping her eyes opened. It all roared in her ears and it was difficult to pull into her lungs. The air seemed to bend around them. Arced behind them and formed a wave they were riding.

Supergirl had just broken the sound barrier.

***

Cat, when later asked, would have difficulty applying concepts like “time” to her experience. Supergirl flew, and Cat clung to her, and the world below them blurred. First the comforting gray of the city, then the too bright green of the suburbs. Dull brown of desert. And finally a blue that always took Cat’s breath away.

Supergirl flew lower. Low enough that water sprayed Cat’s face and dried instantly in her hair. It tasted of salt.

The ocean.

Supergirl was, by all accounts, magnificent in flight. Cat could only peek over her shoulder to watch the Kryptonians racing after them, but it was clear Supergirl was better. She seemed to anticipate their attacks and dodged and twirled and always kept one arm around Cat.

Her cape snapped in the wind and it was the one thing Cat seemed to be able to hear beyond the roar of supersonic flight.

Until, “Ms. Grant I need you to take a deep breath.”

Cat didn’t even get out her “what,” before they were skyrocketing into the sky and then plunging down into the water with Supergirl’s hand protectively covering Cat’s head.

She gasped just as the ocean engulfed them.

There was suddenly silence and a cold that numbed her fingers and made her teeth chatter.

But where ever she was pressed against the Girl of Steel she was warm. So she clung so tightly to the slick blue suit and closed her eyes.

Just held on and worked very hard not to break a thirty year habit and suddenly cast up a prayer to a God she wasn’t especially fond of.

Then it seemed they’d slowed. Or stopped. The saltwater burned when she tried to peek, so she could only squint. They were hidden in part of a reef, Supergirl had one arm up to brace them against the sharp rocks and the other secure around Cat’s waist. She was looking past Cat, sharp eyes focused on murk beyond.

Cat very much wanted to join her in looking out for the Kryptonians chasing them. It was habit. If she had to know the moment she would die she preferred to see her death zooming towards her at a few hundred miles per hour.

Unfortunately there was these little things she was very short on.

Warmth.

Air.

This was the problem with young superheroes. They didn’t _think_. Just shot under freezing water with their living, _breathing_ rescue and sat there.

Cat pulled on Supergirl’s shoulder, and to her credit as a sentinel of peace, Supergirl did try to ignore her and focus on the looming Kryptonian threat.

But Cat Grant had spent the better part of her life getting people to pay attention to her. If she’d been a part of that ridiculous Justice League it would have been her power.

She slapped and patted and poked.

Then, when her lungs were burning and her throat was aching and she had to scream or exhale or die she opened her mouth and Supergirl took the time to notice her distress.

Her eyes were wide with apology.

It reminded her of Kara.

Then her lips were suddenly on Cat’s and they were hot as any flame and her breath as sweet as water to the parched. She dug her fingertips into Supergirl’s scalp and inhaled.

It wasn’t a kiss.

There might have been more than sharing breath and pressing lips together. A light moan. A thigh slipping between two super legs.

But is wasn’t a kiss.

Even though Supergirl’s hand stopped bracing them against the coral to press against Cat’s cheek and she looked at her with an alien expression that might have been construed as “affection” if given by a human.

Certainly not a kiss.

How mundane.

Supergirl nodded at her then tucked Cat’s head down under her chin and started swimming again.

When they came up out of the water the air tasted metallic and the splash of water sounded hollow.

“Where—“

“A sunken submarine. There’s lead all over so they can’t see in, and it’s close enough to the reef to make it harder to hear.”

“And this air pocket?”

“I went looking for it. I needed a place to hide if it got bad.”

“Supergirl’s a planner. Who knew.”

Supergirl shrugged then treaded to the opposite end of the compartment. The metal was too rusted and pitted for Cat to make out much of what the room had once been and it was too dark to see much more than Supergirl, who was treading water and trying not to look at Cat—who likely looked like a drowned rat.

She shuddered.

“Are you all right?”

“Excuse me?”

“You’re shivering Ms. Grant.” Supergirl came closer again. “Is it…is it too cold?”

“You can’t tell?”

“I don’t notice temperature.”

“How lovely for you in January.”

Supergirl’s eyes glowed and the water around Cat warmed considerably.

“I suppose that’s better than other ways of warming the water.”

Supergirl _fidgeted_. “I’m just trying to help.”

“Hm. I’m sure. Any reason you brought me along with you on this trip?”

“Non threw you out of a building to get my attention. I don’t think he would have let you go just to chase me.”

“So dragging me into an air pocket at the center of a sunken submarine is a rescue.”

“I had to improvise.”

“Funny.”

But Supergirl smiled. Then warmed the water again.

“This submarine of solitude—how far from National City is it?”

“Only a couple thousand miles, why?”

“The water is cold.”

“I know, that’s why I’m—“ She heated the water again.

“Do you know how quickly a human loses body heat in cold water.”

Supergirl scoffed. “Humans go swimming all the time.”

“In pools. They don’t go deep sea diving in nothing but Saint Laurent.”

“What…what are you saying?”

“I’m saying I don’t feel well.” She, in fact, felt the _opposite_ of well.

A warm hand pressed to her chest without permission. “You do feel cooler.”

“I thought you couldn’t tell temperature.”

“Around me yes. I still know when coffee’s hot and ice cream’s cold.”

“And the Queen of All Media is freezing?”

Supergirl tilted her hear. “Your heart is beating faster than normal too.”

“Normal?”

A shy smile. “I pay attention.” She frowned. “Ms. Grant—“

“Cat. People who breathe air into my lungs can call me by my first name.”

“Cat.” It sounded quite lovely coming from Supergirl’s lips. “I’m going to keep heating the water and you’re going to keep breathing all right? We just need to wait a little while for them to give up the search, then we can get away and I can get you somewhere safe and warm.”

Cat nodded and tried to enjoy the fleeting warmth Supergirl’s vision provided.

But it couldn’t last. Things, like lurking in a downed submarine to hide from intergalactic criminals, were untenable.

She grew tired and her arms and legs started to go numb and she heard Supergirl at one point. Felt her hands, warm and foreign, on her.

She said something—she knows she did—but Supergirl didn’t hear it.

Her hand presses to Cat’s cheek and it was a very nice hand. Gentle and soft despite being capable of crushing concrete.

Then Cat was asleep.

 

She woke up in the desert and it was worse than the last Oscars after-party Catco threw. She looked at her broken arm and felt raw part on her chin where skin used to be. She’d fallen. Skidded—judging by the canyon formed in the earth.

Supergirl’s arms were still around her—as if she took the brunt of the fall.

Cat saw more dark forms landing around them. Stalking towards them. Supergirl’s arms were gone and she was stepping between Cat and the small oncoming army. That cape, dark red. Iconic.

God no wonder Lois wrote the way she wrote if this was how all her stories with Superman went.

Then there’s fighting. Loud booms and flying sand and heat and violence and Cat couldn’t put into focus and—

***

Doctors and nurses handling her like meet. Supergirl in the corner, streaked with dirt and blood and looking terrified.

Or maybe Kara? Same constipated look of concern.

Bright lights in her eyes and someone asking her questions. She feebly tried to push them away.

Kara or Supergirl or whoever she was came closer.

Supergirl. It’s the S on the chest.

***

Cat made it a habit to not wake up to the sound of heart rate monitors. She remembered using them as a lullaby when her father was sick and even the sound of them on ridiculous medical dramas was enough to set her teeth on edge.

Knowing they’re monitoring her own heart was worse.

“It’s all right,” someone said softly.

Supergirl.

Supergirl had gone and stayed with her. Sat by her bedside and watched her sleep. She swallowed and opened her eyes and

Kara.

Kara frowned.

“Why on earth are you frowning,” Cat asked, and she put her hand over her eyes. The room was bright like the sun after a hangover.

“Because, uh—you—you were frowning?”

“I thought you were someone else.”

“Oh.”

“Where—what happened?”

“You were thrown out off your balcony Ms. Grant. Supergirl caught you and brought you here…three hours later.” She came closer, long fingers twisting with nerves. “Do you…remember what happened?”

“Enough. We hid under water in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.”

“Wow.”

“And then we were…attacked again?” She sank into her pillows. “I don’t…damn it why can’t I remember more?”

“Just take your time.”

There was too much steel in Kara’s voice when she said it. Or maybe it’s because Cat had her eyes closed. But it brought to mind a theory she tried not to ponder too often.

That her assistant was, in fact, Supergirl.

The girl smiled at her and Cat searched her face for some glimpse of recognition. Settled on her lips. “She kissed me.”

Kara’s eyes went wide behind her glasses. “She did?”

Cat peered at her—looking for a break in the aw shucks act. “Yes. And you know what?” She leaned in.

And as expected, Kara leaned in too. “What?”

“I think she liked it.”

She waited. But Kara just stared at her. Then, when she did speak it was with a sigh, “You should sleep Ms. Grant.”

For the first time since Cat had known her Kara didn’t wait to be dismissed. She stood up and walked out of the room.

Cat slid back against her pillows and she thought she saw Kara lean against the wall outside to collect herself, but when she tried to get a better look Kara was gone.

***

The next few days were an endless stream of people. Her mother paced and loudly talked about her concern before Kara had her escorted out, and Carter dame and played games and told her about his day before his father kissed her on the forehead and told her to get better and took her son with him, and Adam called and sighed in relief the she told him she was okay.

And Kara is there.

Constantly. Hovering in the corner with her eyes glued to her phone and her lip between her teeth.

She pretended she doesn’t see the people who lavish Cat with concern, and she commanded the room when Cat insisted on an editorial meeting with half the staff remote and the other half circled around her bed.

The only time she’s gone was at night.

That’s when Supergirl stopped by with a shy smile and asked how she’s feeling.

Neither of them talk about Supergirl only coming in the dark, and always just after Kara’s left. Suspicions, as well founded as they would be, are left unsaid.

“What happened to the Kryptonians,” Cat asked one night.

Supergirl was reading the card on a bouquet of flowers and didn’t look at her immediately.

“They attacked us, didn’t they? That’s how my arm was broken.”

“I’ve dealt with them.”

“And what does that mean?”

Supergirl’s broad shoulders slumped. She turned her head and Cat could see the gentle curve of her cheek. “I didn’t kill them, if that’s what you’re asking.”

“No. Supergirl doesn’t kill.”

“I sent them to the Phantom Zone.”

“That sounds just a little like you killed them.”

“It’s a space between worlds. Time doesn’t pass there. You’re just…frozen. Whatever your last thought is cycling over and over again. Forever.”

Saying it aloud Supergirl sounds haunted, and Supergirl was rarely haunted.

Cat cleared her throat. “It sounds terrible.”

Supergirl nodded. “I was there.” And Cat wasn’t surprised—not with how Supergirl’s just now spoken of the place. But Supergirl turned and looked at her with those sharp eyes that seemed to see everything at once.

It’s Supergirl’s most alien feature. Wide and wise and guileless and utterly inhuman. But only at moments like this. When her focus isn’t on something else. Just on her.

“I was supposed to land at the same time as my cousin, but when…a shockwave knocked me into the Phantom Zone.”

“For how long?”

“Twenty-four years.”

“That’s a long time to be alone with you thoughts.”

“I’ve spent as long a time with the one set of thoughts as I’ve spent without now.”

“So in a way…you and I are nearly the same age.”

“In a way.”

“Only I didn’t spend twenty-four years just lazing about.”

Supergirl ducked her head. “No, we’ve led very different lives.”

Her cape snapped as she went to the window, one foot on the ledge to take her back out into the night.

But Cat couldn’t let her go. Not when she was telling her—has told her so much. So she called after her. “What was your last thought? Before going in?”

Her knuckles were white on the window frame. Shoulders tense. She hung her head and reminded Cat suddenly of a statue. Some titan with the world on their shoulders.

“I was missing my parents and telling myself not to cry even though I could feel the explosion and see the fragments of my world. And I was watching my cousin’s ship. This…this pinpoint of light in the distance. My father told me to watch it. Called it—him a beacon.”

Her throat was dry when she swallowed, and her eyes hot. “You were thinking of your family?”

She shook her head. Looked over her shoulder with a crooked smile. “I was thinking ‘I can do this’.”

Cat rolled her eyes—anything to break the tension weighing the whole room down. “Twenty-four years of self-esteem therapy. It could be worse.”

“Probably. But it was all to raise my cousin, and when I got here he was an adult—“

“You lost your nerve.”

“My foster mother called it “rudderless.” I guess it’s a fancy way of saying I was worthless for a little while.”

“And the suit, being Supergirl. Is this your way of finding worth?”

“No. I have a job and that’s—that’s my way. I like to help people Ms. Grant, in my job, and as Supergirl. That’s all.”

“I told you, call me Cat.”

Supergirl smiled. Shyly if it was possible. Then she slipped into the night. Floating just outside Cat’s window. She spoke softly, but clear enough that Cat could hear her.

“Goodnight Cat.”


	2. The Bad Rescue Crush

“We have a problem.”

That was never a good sign. When you’re sister was Supergirl, problems were always a _bad_ sign.

Alex winced. “What kind of problem?”

Kara took a deep breath and nodded to herself. “Huge. Monumental.”

“Kara.”

She glanced at Alex over her glasses. “Cat Grant has a crush on me.”

Alex, for lack of a better response, blinked. She tried to say something, but when she opened her mouth nothing came out.

Only Kara acted like something did. She nodded. “Yeah. I know.”

“What?”

“Big crush.”

“How?”

Kara shook her head. “I don’t know! She just does.”

“Okay, but.” Alex went to the kitchen and poured herself a drink. “Is this a new thing?” She took a huge gulped. Topped herself off. “Or a rescue crush? Because people get those all the time.”

“I know.”

“I mean _I_ had a rescue crush.”

She sort of laughed, like when Alex had tried to explain abstract algebra to her. “Oh, I know.”

“You saved her life. Spent time together. A rescue crush is very plausible.”

“That’s what I thought. But she said some stuff. Tonight.”

“To who? You or—“

“Supergirl.”

She finished her drink and had another. Tried to ignore the burn in her throat. “Why was Supergirl talking to her?”

Kara threw up her hands like she had no idea why—despite being the hero in question and having a very good idea as to why. “I don’t know! I just…I do. She seems to like it.”

“You don’t think Supergirl paying special visits might be a contributing factor?”

“I used to visit her all the time and things were fine.”

“That’s before you saved her from a murderous legion of aliens.”

“And kissed her,” Kara added.

“And kissed—you kissed Cat Grant?” She poured another.

“Accidentally.”

“How do you _accidentally_ kiss the Queen of All Media?”

Kara snapped like Alex has solved her first major calculus problem. “Hey! You used her name!”

“Kara…”

“I…”

Alex glared. She had it on good authority—from the woman opposite her—that it was an excellent glare.

“She was running out of air so I gave her some.”

“Did you…” Alex wrinkled her nose—the idea forming was too awful to put into words.

“No tongue.”

Oh thank God. She poured another drink and downed it in one go.

Kara continued. “But it was nice?”

Alex poured—Jesus made she should slow down. “Kara, you can _not_ have a crush on your boss.”

“But Supergirl—“

“Can’t either. First. Because oh my _God_ the sexual harassment lawsuits. Second. It’s Cat Grant. She made her _career_ outing people.”

“Gay senators having affairs on their wives.”

“She outed Tom Cruise. On national television.”

“That was… Okay, yeah that was bad. But I’m not Tom Cruise! I’m taller. An alien…”

“You and your cousin are the biggest news stories of the century. This one _and_ the last one. I don’t care how much you _like_ Cat Grant, she can’t know, which means _you_ can't fawn over her like you always do.”

"I don't _fawn_."

"You want to call James to confirm, or should I?"

Kara glared at the exceptionally low blow. Kara and James had imploded at some point during the whole thing with Non, and while they were still friends, romance, at least for the time being, had been taken back off the table.

“Okay. Fine. But that still doesn’t help with the crush. Her’s on me.”

“You could try not visiting her late at night.”

“I could…” She didn’t quite sound like she agreed.

“Distance. It will give her time to get over the rescue crush—“

“It feels like more than a—“

“And whatever other crush she has. Just be. Professional.”

“I can do that.”

“Also, I just drank all your scotch.”

“I saw.”

“I might throw up.”

“I know.”

“Can you carry me to the bathroom?”

***

She took an Uber home. Kara offered to fly her, but Alex was a little worried about throwing up in her sister’s hair like that one _really_ bad night in college they both worked hard to forget. Also, she had a houseguest and she absolutely positively did not need her sister knowing about her houseguest.

Despite her houseguest being someone Kara would very much like to know.

“You are drunk,” Astra said from the living room.

Alex threw her keys into the dish by the door and tried not to sway. “I am drunk.”

“You reek.”

“Bottle of scotch will do that to you.”

“And my niece?”

“Sober. Happy. Confused.”

“Because of Non.”

“No. Because of a rescue crush that is going to completely screw her up if she’s not careful.”

“A ‘rescue crush?’ I am unfamiliar with this term.”

“It’s a…a thing. Why,” she squinted at what she was looking at, “why is my couch on top of the bookshelves.”

“I needed space to work.”

“I feel like that’s not structurally sound.”

“Perhaps. But the furniture is inexpensive. You should replace it.”

“Yeah, I’m on a government salary, that’s not going to be possible.”

“I see jokes about subpar government salaries are universal.”

“You had those on Krypton too?”

“I lived it.”

“With Non.”

After a moment Astra nodded.

And Alex swayed. Because holy fuck she’d had too much to drink. Before she could fall, or stumble, Astra was there. Not as fast as Kara. Alex could actually see her move, where Kara was just a blur when she did her super speed thing.

She also wasn’t as strong, or as invulnerable, and she couldn’t shoot laser beams or freeze people with her breath anymore. Getting stabbed through the heart with a kryptonite blade apparently took some of the oomph out of a Kryptonian’s powers, and even bathing at the center of a yellow sun wasn’t enough to bring them all back.

It was just enough to bring Astra back. She’d helped in the final fight against Non and his squad of criminals, and then she’d disappeared, reappearing on Alex’s doorstep and asking for Alex’s “aid”.

She’d been there for two days and still hadn’t told Alex exactly what she was doing back and exactly why she was hiding from her niece.

The first day Alex had been too exhausted to ask.

Now she was just too drunk.

She let Astra carry her to her bedroom and strip her down and put her beneath the covers and she thought about saying something coy, but when Astra rose up she put her hands on her hips and stared down at Alex with pity. “The frailty of humans is appalling.”

Bad drunken flirting would _not_ be wasted on someone so insulting.

***

Oh God.

Even after throwing up at Kara’s and then at home, the hangover was bad.

Clutching the toilet and wondering why the world existed bad.

Astra watched from the door, steaming cup of coffee in her hands. The smell had Alex retching.

“I will never understand the human race’s obsession with poisoning itself for fun.”

“It’s only poison if you drink too much,” she said without taking her head out of the bowl.

“A whole universe of wonders exist and _this_ is where you spend your time.”

She shot her the bird. It was lost on Astra.

“Why are you,” she pillowed her head on the toilet seat, “why are you even here? Don’t you have a government to overthrow. Small children to terrorize?”

“I’ve brought you another drug humans seem to delight in.” She held the coffee out and the whiff of it had Alex twisting back around to throw up. “Perhaps I should wait until you’ve finished expelling the poison?”

She gave her a thumbs up.

When she finally emerged from the bathroom, one long shower and a lot of vomiting later, Alex almost—almost felt human again.

She bypassed the now tepid coffee to chug water directly from the bottle.

Astra wrinkled her nose but didn’t comment.

When she’d finished she refilled the bottle and turned on her new houseguest. “Okay, Astra.” The other woman stood taller. “We haven’t really talked. About why you’re here. In my home.”

“I needed respite after the battle.”

“Which was days ago. But you’re still here and not at Kara’s. Why?”

She raised her chin. “I need your help.”

“That was a given.”

Astra took a deep breath and stepped close.

Kryptonians didn’t really understand personal boundaries—not like humans—Americans. They just invaded and looked down at a person with a mixture of alien curiosity, superiority, and bizarre humility.

So Alex looked up at her the same way she did when Kara first came to earth and said something snotty about fossil fuel burning cars.

“I must find a way in this world that does not involve war. I believe you can help me.”

Alex licked her lips. “Me? Why not Kara?”

“I wish to come to my niece and not ask for help, but to prove that I have changed. That I am worthy of her respect and love.”

“She already knows that.”

Astra’s smile was obnoxiously condescending. “It’s sweet that you think so. But I have betrayed my niece repeatedly, and Kryptonians have long memories.”

“Kara doesn’t.”

She sighed. “I don’t just do it for Kara. I have known only war for decades, Agent Danvers. I must learn something new.”

“And I’m the one to teach you?”

“You are perhaps the most human person I’ve ever met. So, yes.”

Alex wasn’t really sure if she should take that as a compliment or insult. She settled on blindly reaching for the cold coffee abandoned on the counter and drinking it.

It was strong enough to tar roads.

Maybe she threw up again.

“If that is the proper way to be human,” Astra called from the other room, “we are going to need a lot of Kryptonite.”

And Alex was going to need to develop a better coping mechanism—otherwise she’d need a new liver.

***

Lucy Lane spent eleven minutes trying to ignore the alien cleaning the top of Alex’s kitchen cabinets. Finally she huffed and leaned in. “Who is that?”

“Kara’s aunt.”

Lucy squinted at Alex like she was a bug. A very, very stupid bug. “Her Kryptonian aunt that everyone thought was dead, but who showed up in the eleventh hour to help save the day, only to disappear again before her niece could see she was alive? That aunt?”

Alex shrugged.

“Does Kara know she’s here?”

“Do you honestly think Astra’d be taking GooGone to my cabinets if she did?”

“Why—why is she _here_?”

“I’m the only human she knows.”

“Does—“

“My heat vision’s gone, but I still have excellent hearing.” Astra floated back down to the ground and left the rags and GooGone on the counter. “If you wish to ask questions of me then ask them.”

“Unless you have tips on how to run a covert government organization, than no, I don’t.”

Astra appraised Lucy. Sniffed. “I am going to leave. Your disgusting cabinets are clean.”

“Thanks—“ But Astra was out the door before Alex could finish the sentence.

Lucy watched her. “Should—“

“It’s fine.”

Lucy nodded. “You know, she could be useful.”

"I don't think she plans on joining the DEO any time soon."

"I mean for your cover. I can't think of a better way to prove you're out of the DEO then living with an alien terrorist.”

"She's trying to be better. For Kara."

"Then she can prove herself. She can help your cover. Help you connect with Intergang.”

Alex tried not to touch her stomach. To poke at the burning pit there. Maybe it was an ulcer. Eating her from the inside out.

Kara didn't get ulcers.

Astra probably didn't either.

They got to be big and bold and save or destroy the world.

And Alex got to clean up the mess.

Officially she'd been dismissed from the DEO for collaborating with aliens. Officially she was a sad former agent. Kind of pathetic even. Living off the money her father had left behind and counting down the days until she'd need to get a "real" job.

Unofficially she never left the DEO. Unofficially she was tasked with going so deep undercover she was a little worried she’d never find her way out again.

Nothing major. Just uncover the tie between Fort Rozz prisoners and Intergang, a shadowy criminal organization more powerful than some governments. A group so clever and awful even Superman couldn't stop them.

Just pluck off heads and wait for them to regrow.

Alex was going to do what her sister, what her sister’s cousin, couldn't.

Lucy left—it would be the last time they’d see each other officially until the assignment was over, and Alex took the opportunity to sag on her couch and stare at the artwork—a gift from Kara—hanging on the wall.

It was Krypton. She knew that now. Kara, when she’d given it to her shyly before Alex went away to college, hadn’t told her what it was. Just tall crystal spires and verdant water crashing against craggy rocks. As alien as Kara used to be. As Astra was.

Her phone buzzed in her pocket and she answered without checking the ID. It was Kara, her voice bright and chipper. "Hey," she said, "how's the head?"

"Sleep helped. And a shower. Lucy stopped by too."

"To give you your job back?" Kara sounded ecstatic.

"To have me sign my dismissal papers."

"What. But you saved the city! You helped stop Non!”

“I know—“

“I’m gonna talk to her."

Alex could see it over the phone. That special resolved face Kara made. Brittle and adorable.

"You don't...it’s for the best Kara."

"But you love your job."

"I also love Jane the Virgin, which I'll finally have the time to catch up on."

"You're not just saying this to make ME feel better about YOU getting fired."

She laughed. "No, Kara."

There was a familiar whoosh of wind and Kara was opening the front door. "Good because this is about you," she said. And three steps later she had her arms around Alex. It was that perfect hug of Kara's. Not too tight...which happened when she got excited, or too soft, which happened when she was nervous.

They jokingly called it the Baby Bear hug once. Kara’d come up with it after learning the story. "Just right," she’d said.

And she’d been too new to Earth, to English, for Alex to correct her.

She accepted the hug. Buried her nose in her sister's firm shoulder.

Just right.


	3. When A Queen Bends

Supergirl did not make another appearance before Cat was discharged. Cat would lie on her side in the dark, staring at the window. Willing a dark shadow to appear on the other side of the glass.

But she never came.

Kara did, every morning at eight on the dot and she was “sad” for Cat because Supergirl never came. “Maybe she’s very busy,” she offered with an optimistic shrug.

“I’m sure,” Cat growled.

Kara was holding Cat’s purse, coat, and enough bouquets to block her vision, but she stayed perfectly in step with Cat and the orderly pushing her wheelchair.

“The city’s been—she’s been helping rebuild it.”

“How many Ikea dressers can one woman put together?”

Kara stumbled. “You heard about that?”

“A Huffington Post fluff piece? No. Of course not.” Carter had shared it on his Facebook.

“She was just trying to help.” Kara uselessly shuffled the armful of things she was carrying. “I mean, probably right? Supergirl seems very helpful.”

“On _whims_ Kara. I didn’t see her being helpful last night, when I was alone and needed her.”

The orderly coughed and Cat shot a glare over her shoulder. She also noticed Kara, blushing as red as the roses from Ellen and Portia.

“I bet…I bet she would have been here if she could.”

“Sure. Supergirl making lovey dovey house calls,” the orderly grunted.

Kara looked scandalized at his speaking. Cat slipped her glasses down over her face in preparation for the oncoming storm.

Not the press—Kara had already smoothly misdirected them.

Just the sun. It was painfully bright after the better part of a week in a hotel room.

The car, the Mercedes she drove on the weekend to the grocery store, was waiting in the loading zone.

“Kara, when I requested transportation home it was with the understanding that it would be my driver, whom I pay a very healthy living wage to, that would be picking me up.”

“Uh, about that.” She tried to juggle her load and fidget with her glasses at the same time, but failed at both and had to rely on _exceptional_ reflexes to keep from dropping anything. “He’s not here.”

“Why?”

The orderly blanched and stepped back from the scene.

“Your mother was in town—“

“I’m aware—“

“And she was using this car, but she had to go the airport after saying goodbye this morning—“

“A fact for which I’m sure I owe some small deity a favor—“

“And she took your car.”

“She took my car?”

“She did. And she left—she left this one.” Kara tried to sound excited about that prospect. The ability to sound genuinely excited was, apparently, not one of her superpowers.

“I see, and Kara, how do you expect me to drive this car when my arm is in a cast and I am currently on enough medication to fuel a 1990s alternative rock band?"

Kara was wrestling the flowers and baggage into the back of the car. Her head popped out from behind a spruce of eucalyptus from Hillary. "Well, I'm going to drive, Ms. Grant."

"I wouldn't think you'd know how."

Kara was incredulous. "What? I'm--I'm a normal American girl. Of course I know how."

Cat sniffed, too irritated to call out what she assumed was a whopper of a lie. "I'm sure you are."

She stepped out of the wheelchair and reached for the passenger door. Only she was still a little wobbly--being bed ridden for the better part of a week did that--and she stumbled.

And Kara caught her. Her glasses slipped down her nose and revealed familiar eyes. "Are you," Kara swallowed, "are you all right?"

"I'm with my super assistant. Why wouldn't I be?"

Kara smiled, but she didn't quite have her heart in it. "Right. Of course." She helped Cat into the car. "That's me," she said to herself. "Super."

***

She was...a speedy driver.

Kara fidgeted behind the wheel and constantly seemed to expect the car to move faster than it did.

"Sorry," she apologized at one point. "I'm a little out of practice."

Cat had a death grip on the strap over her head. "I noticed."

Kara laughed and Cat tried not to think about the number of near misses they’d already experienced in the few minutes since leaving the hospital.

"They don't focus on driver's ed in Midvale?"

"They do. I just never needed to pay a lot of attention."

Ha. Cat narrowed her eyes. A monumental slip.

Kara smiled. "Older sister. She drove me everywhere."

Damn. "Yes, the sister. How _is_ your sister? Still out saving the world?"

"She's a hero." Her hands were tight on the wheel.

"You aren't?"

Kara glanced at her, almost shyly, "Still learning, Ms. Grant."

"What is it your sister does again? Besides save the world. She's a scientist or something?"

"Something." Kara took a deep breath.

"And James? I seem to recall him being enamored with you before I was flung off my own building."

"Ms. Grant!"

She sighed and watched the city race by. "Oh please Kara. Stop being so dramatic."

"James and I are just...we're friends."

"But?"

"But nothing. We tried. It didn't work."

"You must have not tried very hard. It's been a week."

Something splintered in Kara. Cracks like fissures on her service. Cat could see someone--something--beneath. And then Kara had that insipid smile plastered on her face and over all the cracks. "How's Carter?"

He'd been staying with his father since her accident, and would come in every day after school to play board games and watch old movies and moan about her ex-husband's bowel movements stinking up the house.

He was certainly the only person as excited as Cat was about her leaving the hospital.

She smirked, "Miserable and ready to be home."

"I was sorry he couldn't meet us today."

"I'm not. I don't need to subject him to your driving."

"Ms. Grant..."

"You know what I'd like," she rested her chin on her fist and looked out the window. "I'd like a burger."

"Ms..."

"If you say my name one more time like that I'll snatch the wheel and crash us into a ravine." Satisfied. "Now. A burger."

Cat spent a great deal of time with her assistant, but she never _ate_ with her, and certainly not in the Big Belly parking lot.

Kara finished her own meal in record time and then kept staring wistfully at Cat’s burger when she thought Cat wasn’t looking. She almost offered part of it to the poor girl, but thought better.

If she wanted to play games than Cat could play games too.

She moaned as she ate. Loudly relishing every bite. A lovely blush rose on Kara’s cheeks.

"Still hungry Kara?"

Kara stuttered in search of a response.

The drugs that gave Cat her Big Belly craving were urging her to hold out a fry. To see if Kara would eat it from her hand. To wait for the silence that would follow, and then the look, and then maybe the end of the travesty she knew she was experiencing.

Kara Danvers was Supergirl.

Cat was sure of it. More sure of it then any gossip she'd ever penned. Oh yes, Kara could try to misdirect with a shape changing doppelgänger and apologies she stumbled through, but Cat saw the shifting of her shoulders--the tilt of her chin when she thought no one was looking.

Kara was very good at hiding, but by no means perfect. And Cat had tried, she really had. She'd tried to ignore all the signs. To pretend there were two women

But then Supergirl stopped her house calls. She _perturbed_ Cat.

So the ridiculous veil needed to come down.

It was probably petty. But so was hiding your identity from your mentor. And so was kissing her and then running.

Absolutely petty.

***

The house was on a cliff face. One of many that looked out over the city. Spread the world out like a blanket of jewels--God. Cat need a cigarette.

She hadn't smoked since before Carter was born, but she was positive nicotine would clear the cobwebs that had invaded her brain.

Comparing the city to jewels? That sounded like something vomited from Lois's pen.

But her house _was_ on a cliff face and she'd always liked that. Because she could come home and even if the house was empty--if Carter wasn't there--there'd still be the city lights reaching up from below. It made the whole home glow.

Kara stopped in the doorway, her packages forgotten, and took in the sight. Of course. It was the first time she'd ever been to Cat's home.

"Get an award winning day time talk show and you too can enjoy this view." Cat waved haphazardly at the glass. The lights, green and orange and pale white almost to blue, reflected off her cast.

Kara quietly guffawed--a common habit when she didn't want people to think she was impressed or impressive. "I could never."

"I very much doubt that," Cat said. She crossed the floor, blond wood covered in thick rugs that were a nightmare to clean. The kitchen was lit only by the lamp beneath the cabinets, but it softly illuminated the glassware Cat was after.

“You've got a particular charm, Kara."

Kara tilted her head. She set the packages down and came towards Cat. Saying nothing as Cat poured a finger of scotch over an ice cube almost as large as the glass itself

Cat sipped her drink, and when Kara still said nothing she raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"You called me Kara."

"That _is_ your name."

"But not what you call me."

"Isn't it?" It wasn't.

Kara shook her head and her fingers skated over the marble counter between them. Cat wondered how the stone would react to Kara's strength. Sculptors always had such talent with marble. Made it appear as supple as silk, as liquid as water. Could Kara do the same? Or would the marble splinter beneath enough of her touch.

"Ms. Grant," Kara pushed her glasses up. "Should you be drinking right now?"

"Because of the drugs?"

Kara nodded.

"I think I'll survive."

"I just--I worry."

"Why? Because I nearly drowned in the Pacific Ocean and almost lost my life to aliens from another planet?"

Kara said nothing. But she did stand taller. Shoulders back and broad.

Cat set the glass down. “Plummeting to my death with no sure hope of rescue do you know what I thought, Kara?”

She shook her head.

“I mainly screamed. There was no time to do much else." She sipped her drink. "Then. Or when Supergirl had me in her arms.” She kept her eyes on Kara. Steady in the face of Kara's nerves. “Keeping me warm. Alive.”

Kara swallowed.

“I focused on survival then, but at the hospital I had time to reflect. I thought about the sons I nearly lost. A mother I really have no desire to better my relationship with. And I thought about you, Kara Danvers.” She said her name with more relish than normal. Like it was a joke, shared between the two of them.

“Me,” she squeaked.

Cat came around the counter. Closer. “The way you looked at me before I was thrown off my balcony.”

"I was just...trying to--to be there..."

"That kind of bravery is uncommon in normal people Kara."

Kara’s mouth struggled to make words, but nothing came out.

There were different ways to unmask a superhero. The Joker seemed to try a new one every week.

But Cat merely reached out with a trembling hand. Kara flinched and Cat waited. Patiently. When Kara didn't step away--didn't interject--Cat removed Kara's glasses. Watched the way the loss of them transformed Kara.

She’d seen her, once or twice, without them. When she’d taken them off to clean them, or popped in from outdoors too quickly. But she’d still been _Kara_ then. Now. Without them she was naked.

Bare.

"Ms. Grant--Cat." Her Super assistant, lost for words.

Cat spoke softly. “You didn’t stop by last night.”

“I thought..." She tried to smile gamely, but didn't quite succeed. "We've been through this.”

“And all the evidence I presented still stands. There’s even been more since. The sudden disappearances. The ability to survive a banshee’s scream and be knocked out a window—“

“Barry—“

“And the Flash. You two were such fast friends. Like he and Supergirl.”

“Because he rescued me—“

“The only thing I haven’t figured out was how there were two of you when you last tried to put me off the scent."

"Well this is just--"

"There were reports of a shape shifter helping stop you when you were sick. I suppose that could be it."

"I'm not--"

"Please don't. I can suffer a lot, but please, please don't lie to me. Not now."

Cat still had Kara’s glasses clenched in her fist. Kara's fingers brushed her knuckles. Wrapped around her hand. Hot as the sun. "Whatever you're looking for...I'm not who you need me to be, Cat."

Not a denial. Not an admission.

"Say it."

Kara swallowed.

When had she stepped so close that she could see freckles on Kara's cheeks--even in the miserable light. The light shade of eye shadow. No foundation. Kara's skin didn't need it.

Lips dark. Cat watched Kara's tongue slip out to wet them.

Her own mouth opened and only warm breath came out. "Say it,” she said. Again. Softly. Loud enough that only Supergirl could hear.

Kara's eyes, piercing as the lights beyond the balcony.

The admission was there--a half step away. Ready to be uttered and received. All Kara had to do was say it.

Cat readied herself. Dissolved all sense of personal space with a step. Looked at lips she had no right to desire--no need to capture. "Just say it."

She could taste Kara's breath and was so focused on it she didn't notice the glasses pulled from her grip until Kara reached up between them to put them back on.

She seemed impossibly old in the moment. Not the hapless assistant or steel framed god, but some wary creature cast down from heaven.

"Goodnight Ms. Grant."

***

And that could have been that. A nail in the coffin. The final act of the charade. There could be no pestering, no prodding, after Cat had been so rash. So stupidly, nakedly vulnerable.

They would go back to being assistant and mentor.

Kara left and Carter came home and they lay in her bed watching black and white movies until Carter couldn't keep his eyes open.

She walked him to his room--ignoring the aches afflicting her body.

But when she came back to her room, cold with nothing but the stark glow of the TV, there was a dark form lurking outside of the window.

She pushed it open and desperately wished she had some kind of shield between her and Supergirl. A blanket or papers or a glass of alcohol.

Supergirl spoke first, voice deep and clear. Authoritative where Kara's never was. "I hear you're still looking for me in places I can't be found."

"Is it wrong--to think you exist in the world outside of that." She motioned at Supergirl's costume and Supergirl smiled.

"This is me Ms. Grant."

"Yes. A symbol. You superheroes all have to be."

"Exactly."

"But for the public. I would think we, you and I, we're beyond that now."

She floated softly into the room. Landing gracefully on one foot. Then the other.

Cat refused to budge though. There were scant inches between them. "You're very important to me Ms. Grant--"

"Cat."

She frowned. Smiled. "Cat."

“But not enough to be honest?”

“I think you know that’s not true.”

“Then why hide?”

"I'm not."

"You are. Every day at work with that ridiculous charade you're _hiding_. And you don't have to. I know--I know I was rash before--awful even. But--"

There was a flutter of cloth and Supergirl was shutting the bedroom door. Carefully locking it.

Cat expected her shoulders to drop—expected the guise of Kara Danvers to fall over her like a costume. But the only change was a bare softening of her voice. A hesitance in her eyes as she turned back around and said Cat's name.

She was caught suddenly between the superhero and the girl.

And Cat wanted to ask why. Wanted to ask how the lines were drawn—the pieces of her parted and parceled. She desperately wanted to see the seams that kept Kara Danvers and Supergirl sewed together.

But Supergirl didn’t confess. She didn’t bare the stitching of her selves. She swooped back into Cat's space with a snap of her cape and her hand slipped into Cat’s hair, her fingers brushed her scalp and she almost—almost kissed her.

She stopped herself at the last minute. Let the minute distance—the promise of it—linger.

“This is all I can be, Cat.” She swallowed. It wasn’t a kiss. Their lips brushed, but it was too fleeting to qualify as anything more than foreplay. “ _This_ is it.”

Cat realized, quite suddenly, that this girl—this woman—was asking permission. She was offering up what she could and begging Cat to take it. To accept half measures and grand lies.

And Cat wasn’t one to do that. She didn’t build an empire on it. She built an empire on inspiring and brutal honesty. Destroyed two marriages on it. It was the one point on which she would never, ever bend.

Until Supergirl.

The kiss was pact as much as promise fulfilled. Hands in hair, no sound but hurried breath and wet lips. It was messy and slow and long.

And right.

The Queen of All Media did bend.


	4. Aliens Do It Better

She slept most of the day. Partially because a little bit of her wanted to pout over being publicly unemployed. But primarily because her new job meant long nights and she needed to be rested.

She did not document Astra's comings and goings--though she probably should have--so she was actually surprised when Astra sauntered into the apartment in a twenty year old mauve-colored business suit and very proudly announced, "I have taken my first step."

Alex was six spoons deep into her Cheerios. "I know for a fact that isn't true."

"Metaphorically Agent Danvers. Are you truly so simple?"

She set her spoon down and refused to pinch her nose in frustration. "I'll bite. How do you take your metaphorical first step?"

"I have retained employment."

Alex had to remind herself that she was only fake unemployed or she would have been ridiculously jealous. "Congratulations. Big Belly Burger or Dillard's?"

"Harrington University." National City's premiere university, also one of the best universities in the nation.

Because of course Astra could waltz out and get a job in one day.

"Doing...what exactly?"

"I am an associate professor of mathematics."

Alex raised an eyebrow. "You're...a math genius?"

Astra laughed. "Oh Rao no. Compared to the rest of my family--and extended family--I'm as simple as a human. But I can, I believe the term is, 'fake it'?"

"How did you even get hired? Pretty sure Harrington University doesn't accept degrees from other planets."

"I forged the credentials." She held out her resume for inspection, and because Alex liked to torture herself she took it and read it.

"It says you're a Rhodes Scholar."

Astra nodded.

"With a BA from Harvard, a Masters from MIT, and doctorate from Princeton."

Astra mouthed along, like she'd memorized her own resume.

"How the hell did you make this list? Just go down US News ranking list for best math schools?"

"Yes."

She closed her eyes. Took a deep breath. When she opened them again Astra was perilously close, blue eyes studying her like she was some particularly engaging bug on the floor. "Are you unwell Agent Danvers?"

"What? No."

"Your heart was beating erratically."

"I'm trying not to explode. In rage. At you."

"Why? Because I am employed and you are not?"

"Because you've just committed fraud." She waved the resume in Astra's face before slapping it down onto the table next to her Cheerios. "They're going to figure it out."

"They will not. My forgery was exceptional."

"Anyone can forge a resume, but everyone knows everyone in academic circles. Especially as nerdy as yours. You can't forge that."

"Which is why I have secured the endorsement of three professors."

She motioned to the reference section.

"How?" Please don't say Myriad. Please don't say Myriad. Please don't say Myriad.

"I threatened to burn their homes to the ground while they would be forced to watch."

"That's--"

"I paid them off Agent Danvers. I'm alien, but not an idiot."

"Could have fooled me," she uttered under her breath.

"Though I will need you to help with my course work."

"My specialties is bioengineering, not math."

"No, but Kara is exceptional at mathematics. You can ask her questions for me."

Kara had been when she'd first arrived on Earth, but she'd forgotten most of it by the time she finished high school, and only just barely passed her AP Calculus exam. There'd been tears. Alex's mom had _sighed_.

"Kara hates any math that doesn't involve figuring out the tip at Noonans."

Astra's laughter was sudden and genuine, and painfully human. "Kara?"

Alex nodded.

"The youngest person ever accepted onto the Science Council?"

What?

"Only barely breaking her uncle's record, certainly, but her entrance was exceptional--even on Krypton."

Kara didn't... "Kara hates science. Her eyes glazed over any time I asked her to help me study."

"And what would your eyes do if you were forced to help a particularly small and dimwitted child study? Perhaps not even a child. You learn arithmetic in school, but on Krypton we understood it from birth."

Bully for you you fuckers. Alex too a breath in an effort to keep her heart from beating clear out of her chest.

"Kara majored in Communications--journalism. I'm not going to say my sister isn't a genius--because it's not true--but she's not...science isn't her thing."

Astra laughed again, "I do not know what my niece has told you, but the girl is of the House of El, and by all intents and purposes one of its most talented members. So science is very much 'her thing' Agent."

Alex had only a vague idea of how impressive that was, but she knew Astra wanted her to be deeply impressed.

By her little sister.

The apparent prodigy of Krypton.

"She never told me," she said. Accidentally. Out loud.

Astra gave her a pitying look. Like Alex wasn't just the dumbest, but the saddest human on the face of the earth. She didn't even say anything. Which just made it worse. Instead she settled onto the couch and started watching TV.

Leaving Alex to her thoughts. And soggy Cheerios.

***

Kara's cheeks were bright red, she was staring off into space, and there was sticky bun all over her face.

"Long night," Alex asked.

Kara jumped and then immediately reached for her napkin and started cleaning herself up. "What? Nooooo. Nope. Short night. Very short. Saved lives and went home and that was it. All. She. Wrote."

That was a lie. Alex took a seat opposite her and snagged some bun to shove in her mouth. "I'm always kind of impressed you maintain any kind of secret identity, because you are a terrible liar."

"I am a great one. When I want to be."

According to Astra, Kara was more than great. She was a god damned _genius_.

Kara didn't notice Alex getting all introspective. She usually didn't. "You've always been moody and pensive," she complained one time. "If I worried about it every time that'd be all I do."

She was babbling about work. "Ms. Grant was super weird yesterday when I took her home, but I think she might be coming into the office today."

"You took her home?" Alex raised an eyebrow. "You did or," she made a whoosh noise and gestured with her hand.

" _Me_. No special visits from Supergirl remember?"

"Pretty sure chauffeur service qualifies."

"Oh please. I was wearing my glasses. I _drove_."

"Do you think that could be why she was weird? Having your life flash before your eyes will do that to a person."

"I'm not that bad a driver."

Kara was maybe the worst driver to ever receive a license.

"She didn't chicken brake even once."

"Brave woman."

"Alex."

She held her hands up. "Sorry. It's just so easy. I mean you're _driving_ her around Kara. I thought Mom locked your license up after that family trip to Montana."

"She did," she groused, "But Ms. Grant doesn't know that. And I'm more worried about her first day back than me driving without a license."

"She's been gone for something like a week right? How bad can her first day back be?"

Kara's cheeks were puffed out with more than half an entire bun. "Awful."

***

Alex was deeply grateful she didn't work at CatCo. Besides the hours set in stone and the decor that hurt her eyes there was the nightmare that was Cat Grant.

Women was inspirational in that "I need someone famous to trot out in discussions on feminism" kind of way, but she was also a nightmare of a human being.

Kara spent the better part of the afternoon texting Alex about Cat's first day back. It was a series of constant updates bemoaning her own place in the world. One particularly terrifying text suggested battle with Kryptonian invaders was preferable to a gossip vertical meeting with Cat Grant.

Alex's job was way easier. Well...this particular part of her job.

Her new job.

Her _undercover_ job.

She was day drinking in a seedy bar. From three in the afternoon until three in the morning she was supposed to sit in the bar and nurse drinks and looked as miserable and disillusioned as possible.

It wasn't officially an Intergang bar, or one where aliens were rumored to visit. But this one, reportedly, regularly hosted Bruno Mannheim Junior, son of the alleged leader of Intergang (Junior was, reportedly, unaffiliated). It was his place to "escape" the pressures of his life.

It had taken Alex a lot of work to find this particular bar and settle on this particular in. She and Lucy had stayed up late pouring over the choices and trying to avoid talking about their own respective dramas--orbiting the two of them like satellites.

Alex and her Kryptonians and Lucy and her ex.

Now all Alex needed to do was get an introduction with Bruno. Just meet the guy. "You've got some charm," Lucy had said. "A few run ins and you'll be hanging out with him in no time."

That would be her way into Intergang.

But drinking alone was boring. It took _time_. Time Alex didn't feel like she could afford. Time that could be better spent _in_ Intergang than drinking on its periphery.

So one day she did something very stupid, but guaranteed to get her noticed.

She started a fight.

With Mannheim's six-foot-four body guard.

Technically she tripped him when he was carrying drinks back to Mannheim's table. A real subtle trip. No one else noticed. But the drinks crashed to the ground and he rounded on her in a fury and she sassed him.

Alex was _really_ good at sassing people.

Almost as good as fighting them.

She took the jab to the nose and the left hook to the mouth. Had to let him get a couple in. Make herself look...scrappy.

But when he tried to grab her by the throat she made a _great_ quip about hitting a girl and tossed him into the bar.

He went for his gun. She got there first. It was easy--even after drinking half the day.

And, more importantly, it was eye catching. Mannheim _loved_ it and invited her for a drink.

"That's a first," he laughed, "never seen a guy thrown that far."

She sniffed. Blood was trickling out of her nose--which was kind of numb.

Probably broken.

Damn.

Play it cool Danvers.

"I need a new friend," he said with a greasy smile. He pushed a glass of amber liquid towards her. Looked at her gross and lusty like even though her nose was leaking like a sieve. "And you seem my speed. Interested?"

"Depends." She downed the pro-offered whiskey in a gulp.

"On what sweetheart?"

"On how good the pay is."

He grinned. And then he eyed her ass.

She dropped the bodyguard's gun onto the table. The barrel casually aimed in Mannheim's direction. "We're talking about the bodyguard gig right?"

"I've got a bodyguard."

"Yeah a shitty one taken out by a half drunk woman. You need a new one."

"Not a new friend?"

"You want a new friend I got a great app on my phone. You want someone who will watch your back for money and not get taken out by a woman half their size..."

He squinted. "Who the hell are you?"

She smirked. "Alex Danvers, and I used to be kind of a bad ass."

***

She grabbed a wad of paper towels, wet them, and held them to the split in her lip as she made her way to the bathroom. It stang, but not nearly as bad as when she'd done the tequila shot.

Fucking limes.

Mannheim had dropped her off at five and told her if she remember the address and was there by eight in the morning she'd have a job.

As first contact with a suspect went it, Alex's was textbook great.

She found the painkillers behind the mirror and took one more than necessary. When she slammed the mirror shut Astra's reflection was glaring back.

Alex maybe cursed. Loudly.

Astra ignored her. "You are unwell," she said.

"It's nothing. What are you doing awake?"

"It is difficult to have super hearing and sleep when a human is lumbering through the house like a Czarnian."

She didn't know what a Czarnian was, but she guess it had something to do with being loud. "Sorry for disturbing your rent-free sleep in my house."

She threw the wad of paper towels in the sink. They hit with a splat.

"I am concerned Agent Danvers."

"Ex-agent." There was blood on her blouse and she really needed to show so she'd look presentable for the next part of her job interview. She tried to pull it off over her head. Got stuck.

She felt Astra come closer, her hands ghosting over her sides before take the blouse in hand and pulling it off. "You are clearly intoxicated, and bruised and bleeding. Was there a fight? Is Kara all right?"

Boy they were close.

And Astra had pretty eyes. Not quite like Kara's. Darker. Less angry and more calculating.

And were those lips?

Jesus she was drunk.

"Kara is fine, and I was just..." Really nice lips--come on Danvers. "I was working."

Astra was unimpressed.

She sighed and leaned back, her ass pressing into the sink and her arms moving to cover her bra.

"I think some aliens are supplying a major organized criminal organization with dangerous technology." She sniffed again. Everything smelled like copper. "I've been investigating."

"Usually investigating does not involve--" She motioned to Alex's face.

She looked over her shoulder. There was a raw looking cut on the bridge of her nose and one eye was dark as a result.

"I know. This was just a--a by product."

"Does it hurt?" Astra was still standing close, Alex's shirt clutched in her hand.

"No." Yes. And so, so much.

There was a tell-tale whoosh Alex had gotten used to in high school and Astra returned with ice. "This will help with the swelling."

"It's been a few hours--"

Astra continued to hold out the ice pack.

"Fine." She took the pack and pressed it to her face--a little harder than she should have.

"Does my niece know of your new job?"

"No, and--and it needs to stay that way."

"You hide me from her. You hide this task you've taken on. What truths do you speak?"

"Hey, Kara--Kara has secrets too." She motioned with her ice pack. Astra grabbed her wrist and forced her hand and pack back to her nose. "Stuff she keeps from me. We're sisters...we don't...we don't tell each other everything."

"My sister was once my closest confidante." Why...why was her hand still on Alex's wrist? Her thumb gently rubbing Alex's pulse point. "When that stopped I wound up a terrorist and in prison."

"Thanks."

"I worry."

"I know. She's your niece."

"And you are my--"

The gentle and _very_ nice ministrations stopped. She drew her hand away and smiled. As cautious and fragile as her niece's smiles.

Astra didn't define Alex and it was something Alex was deeply grateful for. Whatever they were to each other--whatever they could be--she really didn't need or wanted it codified.

***

"You look like shit Danvers."

Alex slipped her sunglasses on and accepted the offered coffee from Lucy's hand before giving the "cab driver" an address.

"Long night."

"I thought for you long nights involved binge watching Netflix and drinking a couple of bottles of wine. Not looking like five rounds with Wildcat."

Alex shrugged. "Usually doesn't involve doing shots with the heir to Intergang but--"

"You made contact?"

"This cab is currently taking me to his office. Where, if all goes well, I will be getting a job as his newest bodyguard."

"Bodyguard? You were just supposed to make contact for now. Go slow."

She gulped down the coffee. "How many robberies has Intergang committed in the last six months with alien tech? There's no time for slow."

"In undercover jobs there's _always_ time."

Alex disagreed and she looked out the window and sipped her drink, ignoring the sting of the hot liquid on her lip.

"When you two were doing shots in the bar did he happen to take a look at that cut on your nose?"

"I iced it when I got home."

Lucy scooted closer and her cool hands grabbed Alex's chin. "Let me look."

"Seriously it's--"

Lucy jerked her around so she was forced to stare at her and take note of the very serious "please do not fuck with me Agent Danvers" expression.

Why did everyone Alex know have blue eyes?

Lucy carefully prodded Alex's nose and winced. "That cut could probably do with a suture--unless you want to scare small children?"

"It's not that bad"

Lucy rooted around in her bag and produced a small roll of suture tape. The exact kind a hospital would have used on the cut.

"How do you even--"

"Always be prepared."

"I thought that was a Boy Scout motto."

"Applies for the Army too. Now hold still."

Lucy's ministrations were delicate, and she was close enough that Alex could see the fine line of her foundation and smell the gentle fragrance of her perfume.

She swallowed.

Lucy didn't seem to notice--too focused on her task. "What are you going to tell Kara when she sees this?"

"Haven't figured that out yet, but I should be able to dodge her until the swelling goes down. Cat Grant has her running around like crazy."

"She always does, but Kara still finds time to do her Super thing. She'll probably find time for her sister too, especially after the DEO fired you."

"I don't know--"

"She's called me twice a day since you told her. And stopped by even more. Even threatened to stop working with us."

"I'll...I'll talk to her."

Lucy smiled. "It's nice though. Her looking out for you."

"Lois wouldn't do the same?"

"Lois is a great sister, but we don't even do holidays together. She wouldn't go and threaten the Army if I got fired."

"She should."

Lucy raised an eyebrow.

"It's just...you're good at your job."

"So are you Agent Danvers." Her hand dropped from Alex's face to her knee. She squeezed. "If you slow down."

"Alex." She swallowed again. "You're going to be my handler, you should at least use my first name."

Her hand was still definitely on Alex's knee. "Only if you do the same."

"All right...Lucy."


	5. Chapter 5

Whatever Kara Danvers was, whether hero or alien, she was, at least, exceptional at lying. She wore the costume of plucky and affable assistant like Batman wore his mask.

There had to be some truth to it. There always was with the best of lies.

"Kara," she called, and the girl strode in, nearly wrecked with nervous energy. "I'm writing a story."

Kara's eyes bulged comically. The entire staff lived in fear of Cat's bouts of writing.

"You are?"

"Yes. I need your help."

"Mine," she squeaked.

She didn't not look up, slipped on her reading glasses. Everything became too focused. She pulled the second pair of reading glasses off her face and nodded. "Yes. You have a...certain similarity to Supergirl--"

"Ms. Grant--"

"Similar age. Similar backstory." She watched Kara for some flicker of annoyance.

Kara just looked vaguely confused. Perhaps a little gassy.

"Tell me, as her fellow Millennial, why do you think she hides?"

Kara laughed, "She doesn't. With the--" She made a diamond shape over her chest, "And the," she pantomimed a fluttering cape. "Seems kind of the opposite of hiding."

"So where is she? Right...now."

"Maybe Kryptonians have to...use the bathroom?" Cat glared. "For...hours at a time?"

"Kiera that is the most idiotic thing you've ever said."

"See we're back to Kiera," she mumbled.

Cat raised an eyebrow. "Excuse me?"

Kara's dumb smile really was superb, "Nothing. Nothing. I just--why does no one ask that question about Superman?"

"Lois Lane did."

"Yeah but she's also ma--majorly annoying? And she hasn't asked it in ages."

"And she didn't get an answer when she did ask. Imagine the coup Kiera 'Supergirl Unmasked.'"

"You want to out her?"

"No. I want to define her. And her reasons for staying in the limelight are important."

Kara chewed on her lower lip.

"You must have an opinion Kiera."

"Why do you?" Cat had struck a nerve. Snapped Kara's temper as easily as a twig. "Supergirl hides, and so do you."

Cat motioned to her desk--her office. "I'm hardly hiding."

"Only you are. You're a huge--a...a monumental nerd and yet your like to hide behind this bitter name dropping facade."

It was...nasty.

Kara had exceptional control over her temper, especially when Cat considered the experiences Kara might have suffered. When she snapped it was always-always-followed by an apology. But here she was leaning into her words and viciously issuing a challenge.

Cat was immensely grateful for the space between her desk and the general population of the floor. It kept them from hearing. Allowed her to stay her own hand.

"My ability to do rudimentary arithmetic in my head hardly qualifies."

"Settlers of Cattan," Kara said, like she'd won an argument.

Which...maybe she had.

***

Cat was absolutely not out to prove a point. She left work early and then called Kara and demanded she hand deliver proofs because Cat had been hospitalized. She was tired. She wanted to be home with her son.

It was not because she'd promised to play board games with him and wanted Kara to see.

Or because she wanted to show off her culinary skill. Or her ability to be maternal. Kind. Trustworthy.

It was just because she really needed the proofs.

Carter answered the door and ushered Kara in, and because he was exceedingly eager and polite he invited Kara to stay for dinner.

And because Kara Danvers had the backbone of a of an invertebrate she agreed.

It was a roast and Kara ate over half of it. Something Carter only mentioned when Kara was out of the room and even then only with slightly bugged eyes and a hurried gesture towards the remains. She'd raised her son to be polite.

After dinner Carter invited Kara to play games. Kara smirked and Cat enjoyed the way she fidgeted when Cat tried one of her best glares on her.

They played for longer than they should have. Carter was gifted and would certainly be a superb strategist if he wanted to, but Cat was a mogul and Kara Danvers was clearly a brilliant alien content to play dumb.

Cat was a little worried about what might have happened if Kara had been playing for real. If those alien eyes had been focused.

Carter was thankfully responsible enough to go to bed without prompting and announced it casually.

Kara fetched more wine and filled Cat's glass.

"I suppose I should be worried," Cat said. "He won't always be so agreeable."

"I was," Kara chirped. "My sister and I both were."

"Oh?"

"My...foster father died not long after I went to live with them. That was a lot of slack for us to pick up."

"Your foster mother couldn't do it alone?"

"She’s not like you, Ms. Grant. She didn't choose to be alone."

Her glass froze at her lip. Chose? Like two failed marriages were a purposeful decision.

"I suppose," she said simply.

Kara sat there primly. She sipped her wine and Cat wondered if it even worked on her. The flush Cat could feel on her own cheeks was absent from Kara's. There was no silly, tipsy grin or attempt to mask drunkenness. She was just. Kara.

"About last night," Cat said softly. She didn't want to say anything. Didn't want to acknowledge it or see Kara's reaction. But she watched Kara closely anyways. "I'm sorry."

Kara's smile was kind. "It's all right. It was...nice."

"My invading your personal space?"

"You thinking I was Supergirl."

Cat had no response. No glib reply. There seemed to be layers to this conversation that she was ill-equipped for.

"I'm just...I'm your sort of assistant." At least until she found a genuinely good one.

"And you're excellent--"

"I know. I know. But that--being your assistant? That's what people see. The girl who gets your coffee and takes notes in meetings. And--"

"That's not what I see."

Kara shrugged. "You saw me and thought I was," she took a breath, "You saw something more than the assistant. Thank you."

"Kara." Cat had been studying the roll of her wine against the side of the glass, but now she made sure Kara was looking. That there was eye contact. "You have never been just an assistant. However you're treated you should know that your are much more than that girl you insist we all think you are."

There were more words to say. Like extraordinary and remarkable. But such effusive praise would have been beyond the relationship between employer and employee. The words she wanted to say she would preserve for the other Kara. The one who snuck through her window and stole a kiss.

***

Supergirl's house visits were nothing like her office visits--or even her hospital ones. Like the night before, she arrived late, well after midnight and hovering outside the window.

"Little late for a house call."

Supergirl ducked her head, that abashed smile on her face. "Bridge collapse in Star City. Thought I'd help."

Cat pursed her lips. Hummed. Because she honestly had no idea how Kara could have flown to Star City and stopped a bridge collapse and come back in the hour since she saw her last.

"Branching out," she finally said with a raised eyebrow. "Can Star City start to expect your help regularly?"

Supergirl's face was still friendly, but there was a stony silence just under the skin. She landed lightly. Graceful and quiet. "How was your night," she asked. There was a rumble in Supergirl's voice. One that Kara never had.

Cat shrugged.

"About--about last night..."

"Come to apologize for manhandling me?"

She couldn't be sure, but she thought she saw a blush. "I had fun."

"You should. I'm fantastic."

"Hey--"

"You are too. We're a regular power couple. Here. In secret." A facade of an identity standing between them.

She sighed. "You got thrown out a window for being my friend. Imagine what would happen if--if we went on a date. Also I think seeing Supergirl grabbing a coffee at Noonan's might ruin some of the--"

"Mystique?"

Supergirl shrugged.

"So I only get a part of you? The part you carve out."

"For you."

"How romantic," Cat said dryly.

Supergirl shook her head.

"Why'd you come here? Tonight?"

"You know why." Supergirl always had bright eyes. But they were dark now, and stripping Cat bare.

Cat was too old for purely physical relationships. For ones where they used and abused each other like idiots. Too old for the heartache and the hesitancy.

Supergirl might have been close in age chronologically, but she was still so young.

And she could have anyone. Supergirl was a god cast down from the stars and she could choose any person on the planet. Fly into their window and offer compromise and call it romance.

But the moon was outlining her in the frame of Cat's window and she revealed little bits of her alien humanity to Cat. Not James Olsen who fluttered around Kara with naked concern and fidgety focus or Winn Schott, who studied her in melancholic moodiness.

This goddess with an unerring gaze had chosen Cat, and she was too old to be moved. Wooed. But she was.

In spite of it all.

Supergirl kissed her and Cat threw hard earned wisdom out the window. Wrapped her arms around Supergirl's neck and let her hot mouth explore her lips. Her jaw. Her neck.

A hand slipped under Cat's worn t-shirt and a palm, rough with the fabric of Supergirl's costume, pressed to her waist. Fingers dug and Cat wanted to unravel. Wanted to stop fighting the better--smarter--part of her that said this was a bad idea.

That she was being used.

Her back thumped against her bedroom door and Supergirl slid down her body. Her nose brushed Cat's hip. Her fingers played across her thigh. Her teeth scraped the fabric of Cat's pants.

And Cat moaned. Her hand snaked into Supergirl's hair.

It was so easy to move Supergirl. A mere tug and she was kissing Cat's chest. She could catch planes falling from the sky and couldn't be moved by aliens twice her size, but Cat had only to pull and Supergirl was hers.

"Mom?"

Supergirl froze. Ducked her head into the crook of Cat's shoulder. And Cat tried to catch her breath. To forget the hand braced against the door by her head and the other holding her leg around Supergirl's waist.

"Carter," Supergirl whispered with a shuddering breath.

Her son called again and Cat found her voice and told him it was okay.

Supergirl stared at the door and Cat only belatedly realized she's staring through it. Using her X-Ray vision to watch Carter.

"He's back in bed," she said softly. One hand pushed the hair back away from her ear. "And...he's nearly asleep."

"Handy talent."

Supergirl shook her head. Then there was a burst of wind and she was across the room and wringing her hands.

"That was--this is. It's a mistake."

Cat said nothing, because she'd known it was a mistake from the first kiss, and she'd struggled to care.

"You're a mom and I'm...this isn't fair. To you or Carter."

"At this point I don't really see how it affects Carter."

"You're his mom. I can't...I'm..." She took a deep breath. Chest expanding and contracting. "I'm being selfish."

"I know."

That wounded Supergirl.

"It's all right to be selfish. I am."

Supergirl shook her head. "No. Not...that was...selfishness was practically a taboo on Krypton."

Earth too. Some places. Particularly for women. "Kissing women wasn't?"

That earned her a quick grin that could have as easily been a grimace. "You deserve more than whatever," she motioned between them, "this is."

They both did.

"What if I'm content? If late night rendezvouses are enough for me?"

"Cat..."

"You're being selfish and so am I. The whole world seems to own you--that." She motioned to the S on Supergirl's chest. "But in here it's just us."

Supergirl sat on the bed, billowing cape snagging under her and shoulders slumping.

Cat had never seen her look less impressive and affection blossomed in her own chest. She sat beside her.

"What..." Cat ducked her head. Took a breath. "What if we're selfish...slowly."

Supergirl turned to look at her, but said nothing.

"Just now we were about to move faster than a Kardashian relationship."

Supergirl grinned.

"So what if we go slow? Get to know each other."

"Cat--"

"Nothing formal. Stop by when you like. We'll talk. Or--And we can just see what happens. No...no strings. Nothing messy. If you find some human you'd rather visit than I'll be okay."

Supergirl watched her queerly and then leaned in to place a quick, almost chaste, kiss on her lips.

***

They slowed down and it was more intimate than any sex. Supergirl sitting on her balcony at work and asking about her day and coming by Cat's window late at night and kissing her until Cat was too exhausted to make an effort.

And talking.

It should have been frustrating. Invasive. Awful.

But Cat looked forward to every visit. Leaning on her balcony and waiting for Supergirl to emerge from the darkness.

Sometimes she wouldn't come, and Cat would fall asleep with the window open and the covers at her feet. Then she'd wake up to find Supergirl on the morning news--waging battles or saving lives.

At work Kara was still Kara and Cat began to forget her own accusations--truths neither one would admit. There were no longer than necessary glances. No moments when Kara forgot herself and stood too close or said too much. The barrier between hero and girl was firm and unassailable.

But Cat was greedy enough to want to tear it down.

Who wouldn't have been?

She let it lie.

As much as she wanted to tear the barrier down and get at the real woman she didn't.

Late one night there was a light tap on her window.

"Hi," Supergirl said softly.

She wanted to tear Supergirl down, but she was always the one undone. Pulse quickening. "Come to ravage me again? Or maybe just listen to my day?"

Supergirl frowned. "Neither...unless you want me to?"

She was adorably hopeful sounding.

Cat crossed her arms.

Supergirl huffed. "I actually. I wanted...do you have a sweater or something you can put on? Shoes?"

"Why?"

"Cat..."

God her voice. Plaintive and just a little husky.

Cat fetched a sweater and slipped on a pair of comfortable boat shoes she'd never wear outside of the house...or the deck of a boat.

Supergirl caught her hand and gently led her back to the window, then slipped Cat's arm around her waist. "Hold on tight," she said, and there was something giddishly childlike in the command.

Then they were lifting up off the ground, and as often as Cat had seen Supergirl take flight, it was the first time she'd gone with her (being caught mid-plummet really didn't count).

She gasped and tightened her grip and Supergirl's smile was so soft. "Don't worry, we're not going far."

And they didn't. Supergirl merely settled Cat onto her own roof. Beside a blanket and basket.

A picnic.

She must have been staring because Supergirl blushed. "I figured you wouldn't want to leave Carter, but this way we have some privacy."

"Unless a helicopter flies by."

"I'll hear."

"This all an effort to get into my pants Supergirl?"

"I think you've made it very clear I could get in any time I wanted."

Cat raised an eyebrow.

Supergirl realized what she'd said. Her hands flew to her mouth in horror. "Oh my--I am so sorry."

"You're adorable when you're horrified."

She frowned. "Adorable."

Gorgeous seemed too passionate--too real for Cat to say. So she settled on kissing Supergirl gently. "It's a nice picnic."

"There's champagne. And wine. And olives? I don't...I don't really do this often."

"I'd hope not. Then I might have to get jealous."

"There's no one--"

Besides James Olsen and Winn Schott and an entire city.

She took a seat on the blanket and patted the spot next to her. "Pour me a glass?"

Supergirl did--after showing off her ability to pop a cork with nothing but a squeeze. Then she tried to explain it and how it required precise pressure and something about fluid dynamics and Cat kissed her again just so she didn't have to hear.

It was very nice kissing. Slow and lazy.

Painfully intimate.

The kind of kissing Cat never wanted to end. Though the hard roof and the chilly breeze coming over the mountain took away a little of the magic.

A beeping interrupted them, and Supergirl broke away to check her phone.

"Superman calling?"

"No, an alarm. I kind of wanted--"

She held up a hand as if the gesture could pause the moment. Then she popped up and began rooting around in the rather large picnic basket.

She produced a tripod.

Then a telescope.

"This seems a little Rear Window for you, Supergirl."

Supergirl ignored her, except for a quick smile. She directed the telescope heavenward and then quickly started making adjustments, pausing to double check her phone, or peer up at the sky.

Then she settled back down, sitting on her feet and facing Cat. She nodded towards the telescope and Cat shuffled forward, eyeing Supergirl suspiciously as she went.

"Do you see it?"

Cat's eye adjusted to the telescopic view. They were pointed the opposite direction of National City and high enough up in the hills that the light pollution wasn't as bad.

The stars weren't as breathtaking as if they were stuck out in Marfa, Texas, but they were still gorgeous.

And then...a field of stars moved.

Cat gasped.

"What--"

The stars seemed to be performing a dance. Winding around and through each other. Changing colors and size. Winking in and out of existence.

She pulled away from the telescope.

"Did you drug me?"

"What?"

"With the alcohol. Why are the stars--they're moving. And not like stars do. With the--"

She spun her finger like a moon orbiting a planet.

Supergirl laughed. "They're not stars."

"What?" She looked through the telescope again. "But..."

"It's a herd, traveling on solar winds."

"A herd of what?"

Supergirl said something that sounded like a burp somehow blended with a song. "Sorry. It's hard to translate." She tried again. Slower. Letting the words sit heavy on her tongue. "Llyanockars."

"That still doesn't mean anything."

"They're beings of--I guess you'd consider them light. They wander the galaxy, kind of going wherever the winds take them."

"The solar winds."

Supergirl nodded.

"How have we never seen them before?"

"Earth is sort of--we're at the edge of the galaxy. Maybe they never made it out this far?"

“How’d you know they would be here?”

“Super hearing. Some scientists heard too.” She laughed. “Superman and I had to convince them it wasn’t aliens coming to take over Earth.”

“Superman…knows about them?”

“Now. After I explained.”

“You had them on Krypton.”

She nodded. "We had a whole festival in Argos City. From the mountains outside the city you could see them really clearly. Everyone would climb up and watch. You'd get school off to make the climb."

Sometimes, such as now, Supergirl seemed very lost. As if she'd been dragged to that world. Her eyes lost their sparkle and Cat was reminded, disturbingly, of the soldiers and refugees she'd met.

The thousand yard stare was universal.

She sat cross legged beside Supergirl. Tried to school her own emotions. She wanted to reach out, but as intimate as they'd become it still seemed wrong.

The hurt was too big--Cat's condolences far too small.

"Light was...a big deal on Krypton. Rao was our sun, but also our God. Kids born when the sun was high were considered lucky and weddings always happened when Rao was on the horizon. So the union would be blessed." She glanced at Cat and tried to smile. "That must sound pretty dumb to you."

"On Sundays we all eat bread and drink wine and pretend it's a dead man. Religion always sounds silly when you're on the outside looking in." She scooted closer, her knee brushing Supergirl's thigh. “And the rest of us have the luxury of sharing it with someone who understands. You don't."

"My family--my foster family--are atheists."

"They made fun of you."

“No. They were always very supportive. My," she laughed, "my foster father even used to point the telescope at Rao. So I could see it whenever I wanted."

"That was sweet."

"I didn't tell him I could just look." She tapped a spot below her eye. "Really good vision."

“Super vision. Super hearing. The world must seem small compared to what you can perceive.”

“Not at all. The people make it big.”

“Like me?” She meant it as a joke.

But stupid sincere Supergirl had to smile. “Yeah. Like you.”

It was a nice moment and Cat had to go and wreck it. “And your foster family?”

“Trying to figure me out Ms. Grant?”

“Can you blame me for wanting to understand the woman I spend the better part of my nights with?”

Supergirl scooted closer. “I’ll tell you one thing about my foster family.” She nuzzled Cat’s nose in the most adorably flirtatious gesture she’d experience in the last twenty years.

“One thing,” she asked softly, lips brushing Supergirl’s.

She felt the hot breath of her laugh.

“One thing.”

A quick, heated kiss that had Cat sucking in air through her nose.

“I love them Cat.”

She loved—

Cat pulled back and Supergirl grinned like she’d just told the funniest joke since—well no one actually told funny jokes anymore.

Cat shoved her, which was like pushing against sheetrock. Then Supergirl laughed, and it was so bright and teasing and totally unlike Supergirl or the long suspected Kara Danvers that Cat laughed too.

She’d spent all this time looking for the seams that bound Kara and Supergirl and she’d never even considered that they were both just masks. Hiding the lost woman beneath.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this one was late. Moving this past weekend apparently wrecked my schedule.  
> Back to Monday postings next week!

It was _not_ the bodyguard job. It was a messenger job. Alex picked packages up and delivered them. She received cash in exchange.

The deliveries were always dead drops and as much as Alex _really_ wanted to open them and see what she was transporting Lucy insisted playing nice was better than playing legal.

It was stupid. Infuriating. J'onn was out there hunting down Cadmus and Kara was capturing escaped Rozz inmates and Alex was...a delivery girl.

Working her ass off to get an in with a criminal.

At night Bruno would call her up. "Come out for a drink," he'd say, and she could see how some people accused him of being "smooth."

She went for drinks and she played the game and she fended off the passes and then moaned about them to Lucy.

"I fought an alien with six hands who was less handsy."

Lucy raised an eyebrow. "There are six-handed aliens?"

"There are all kinds of aliens. You name a body part and there's an alien out there with multiple ones."

"Even--"

"Yes."

Lucy snapped her phone out and shoved it in her pocket. ”Maybe we should give you backup. Some kind of buffer."

"Pretty sure putting a big burly guy between me and Mannheim would hurt my whole "badass" reputation."

"It wouldn't have to be a big burly guy. J'onn--"

"Is on the Cadmus hunt. I don't want to distract him from it."

She wanted to be _on_ it. But instead she had Intergang duty. Sure there was the off chance that Intergang's weaponry was Cadmus based--but it wasn't the same. It wasn't _direct_.

"What about--"

"I'll be fine," Alex snapped, and Lucy drew back in alarm, hands held up in mock surrender.

Alex settled on that being that, but she really shouldn't have.

Lucy was her handler and some kind of friend-like person. She was also career army--a soldier. She wasn't going to just roll over because Alex snapped at her.

A fact that was confirmed one night, two weeks in, when Lucy appeared like a vision in the doorway of the bar, the dull glow of the street lights like a halo around her frame. A stylish red dress hugging her like it was painted on.

People stopped.

A lot stared.

_Alex_ stared.

And Lucy _sauntered_. Right over to Alex. And she leaned in and Alex didn't move.

Didn't breathe.

"Hi," Lucy said, and the tone--the volume--it could all only be described as "bedroom" voice.

"What are you--"

Lucy had soft lips. Gentle. Very _sure_ lips. She kissed and it was the kind of kiss a woman was expected to-- _had_ \--to respond to.

Though she probably shouldn't have slipped Lucy the tongue there at the end. At least judging from the scorching look she earned when they separated.

Lucy leaned in. Her lips grazed Alex's ear. "The girlfriend. Go with it."

Alex swallowed, but hid the movement by burying her face in Lucy's neck. "Okay," she said, her voice raspy.

Lucy's touch was one part comfort and two parts trouble and Alex was _not_ equipped for this kind of undercover job.

There was a lot of whooping over the introduction of Alex's "girlfriend."

Lucy laughed. "That's a little more commitment than I signed on for."

And Alex ducked her head and shrugged good-naturedly as Bruno slapped her on the back. "Least I know why you aren't into me now!"

God.

Just.

_god._

Lucy selling it didn't help. She _really_ got into the kissing. To the point that for half a second--a scant moment--Alex forgot it was all pretend.

"Mind if I steal her for the rest of the night," Lucy asked.

And Bruno whooped and Alex let herself be dragged, dropping her hands into Lucy's hips to guide her out the door. Lucy spun around and Alex pressed her against the alley wall, and she could go on kissing her like that forever.

It was a spell. Lucy was Zantana and had Alex enamored.

"That," Lucy said between kisses, "should cut down," oh god Alex's nose could live right there. Just under Lucy's ear. With her lips pressed to Lucy's neck, and a handful of her hair in Lucy's hand. "The passes Bruno's been making."

Right. Alex needed to disengage. Pull away from this _wonderful_ sensation, but without Lucy noticing. Without making it weird.

"Right," she said, lips pressed to Lucy's jaw. "Thanks."

***

It still got weird.

It was probably Alex's fault. She didn't really date. And she didn't really talk to people after hooking up with them.

"Love and leave them" Kara used to say. But then she'd had an accent still. It had been adorable and Alex had been a braggart older sister who didn't actually know what loving and leaving a person meant.

Not that...she wasn't in _love_ with Lucy Lane. She just admired her, and they were working together. Closely.

God.

She groaned and flopped back on Kara's couch. Pillow pressed to her face to catch her scream.

Kara paused in her destruction of her noodles.

"So...I shouldn't have eaten the last potsticker?"

Alex tossed the pillow at her head. "Yes, but it wasn't about that."

"Was it about you being unemployed? Because currently Eliza thinks _everything_ is about you being unemployed."

"Or that."

"Was it about...the lady living in your apartment?"

Ice water. Actual ice water in Alex's veins.

Her heart must have done something because Kara shrugged.

"I heard someone in there the other day when I stopped by--after your face got mashed in?" The bruises under her eyes had only started to fade. "How they were breathing, plus the heartbeat, it sounded like a woman."

"Okay Sherlock. That's the creepiest--you can gender someone by their heartbeat and breathing?"

"Well, _no_ , I mean, not really. But you only date women. So I kind of put it all together."

"You just need a Watson. Oo! Winn. He can grow a little mustache and get pudgy."

Kara lightly pinched her with her toe. "Stop," she laughed. "And I was right wasn't I? It's a girl?"

"It's...complicated."

"Married?"

Alex frowned.

"Old?"

Not as old as Kara's secret girlfriend.

"Married _and_ old?"

"What? No. It's just...there are...national security!"

Trump card.

Kara groaned. "That's not fair."

"Says the girl secretly dating Cat Grant."

Kara dissolved in a fit of sputtering denial that Alex had to sit through.

Finally, "Why do you--not that I am--but why do you think I'm dating Cat Grant?"

"You've been incommunicado in the evenings--"

"Work--"

"People have _seen_ Supergirl stopping by CatCo--"

"I've always done that--"

"And you have that look you get when things go well with a crush. Unless you and James have suddenly figured things out you've moved onto your other crush." She pinched Kara with her toe--it hurt her more than Kara--"Which is something I specifically told you not to do."

"You just said that because you thought she'd out me."

"Because she will."

"Only if she thinks Supergirl and Kara Danvers are the same person."

"Okay so _who_ is dating Cat Grant? Her assistant?"

"Former assistant."

"Or the superhero who looks just like her assistant except for a ponytail and glasses?”

Kara pouted. "I do stuff to my voice too.”

Fair. But Alex wasn't going to let it fly. She glared at her sister.

"And I pull my shoulders back. Supergirl is much broader than Kara Danvers."

Alex deadpanned. ”Your secret identity is safe."

"If it helps, I think she knows, but is pretending she doesn't."

"How--Why would she?"

"She's a real jerk as a reporter, but she's ethical, Alex. She's not going to run a story without proof."

"Which will happen when you get all heart-eyed with her and confess!"

"I won't! I--it's weird but this thing with Cat is nice you know? Like usually I'm hiding everything and they get mad, or I hang everything out and _I_ get mad because they can't decide which me is the _real_ me. With Cat there's no questions asked.”

"Kinky."

"We haven't tried any of that yet. Though I know for a fact she has handcuffs."

"I...I can honestly say I never needed that image in my head. Ever."

Kara sighed in that great big way she did when she was in a crush. "Totally disagree."

She threw another pillow at her.

***

There were a lot of ways Alex could have handled her Lucy-related frustrations. Lucy had her hot and bothered and she was nothing more than a handler. There was nothing there but forced and false intimacy.

And Alex could have handled it.

She could have punched a bag. Or gone for a drive. Maybe had an ill-advised hook up far, far, _far_ from home.

Instead she fucked Kara's aunt.

She was not proud of the fucking or of herself. She was, even, a little ashamed.

But to her credit she'd been drunk.

And to Astra's credit she'd asked "are you sure" as Alex scraped her teeth across unbreakable skin.

"Positive."

And she'd been positive the next morning when she'd slipped into the shower and sucked at the planes of Astra's back. Trying to bruise what could never be bruised.

When Astra had slipped her fingers between Alex's legs and caught her panting cries with her mouth Alex had been sure it was the smartest choice she'd ever made.

Astra wasn't a complication like Lucy. She wasn't full of secrets like Kara. She wasn't the assholes of Intergang or the starched shirts of the DEO.

As messy as their circumstances were, everything with Astra was wonderfully _un_ complicated.

Until Alex was sitting across from her sister at Noonan's and suffering Kara's confused looks.

Alex kept her heart under control. She was good at that when she needed to be.

But she was careful with her words and brusque with her behavior and Kara _noticed_ that.

But she didn't say anything, just looked wounded and told Alex she'd talk to her when she wasn’t pissy.

***

Two days later, after a languid afternoon of ill-advised kisses with Astra, Alex was running a drop in the rain.

And because her personal life was occupying way too much of her headspace she didn't notice the guy with skin like stone, until an open palm carved out of granite was whipping through the air towards her face.

She only barely escaped the brunt of it--taking a glancing blow to the wrist she'd thrown up to protect her head.

Rock meeting wrist? Definitely guaranteed to fuck said wrist up.

She rolled back and held her arm close. Tried to take stock of her situation.

Thunder cracked.

A car roared by on the street beyond the alley.

Lucy was in her ear, because she always was on drops. She was asking Alex for her status and Alex grunted some joke about not having time to talk. Ducked and dodged and danced away from the man (she wasn't just going to _assume_ he was an alien--not with Banshees and Livewires in the world).

But soon she was stuck in the dumbest position she'd ever been in. Literally a rock and a hard place.

The man lunged and Alex leapt for the fire escape overhead.

She pulled herself up one-armed, and bit back the cry she desperately wanted to make as her other wrist protested.

Lucy was still in her ear. Telling her she was on her way, and maybe Kara was out there. Maybe she could hear the creak of her sister's bones across the city and through the storm.

The rock guy caught the bottom of the ladder, braced his legs against the brick wall, and pulled. The fire escape groaned as rusted bolts were torn from their mores.

Alex had one more loud explicative in her before she and a scatter of bricks fell back to the pavement. Hard.

Things were blurry then. A concussion for sure.

She could see the dark shadow of her attacker moving towards her. Then there was heat behind her and the man was cursing in a foreign language (definitely alien) as someone used their heat vision to turn him to molten rock.

Alex knew who it was before long legs clad in cheap pantyhose stepped into view. She looked up, blinking at the rain in her eyes to find Astra above her.

Her cheap department store suit was still half dry, and the water had only begun to bead in her hair.

"I heard you—are you okay?” Her voice was high.

Goddamn it. Astra was actually _concerned_. Brows knit over those bright eyes.

Alex nodded. Swallowed back the pain. "Thanks."

She held an arm out, and Astra gently, carefully, helped her up. Her hand on Alex's elbow. The other at her waist. Eyes on the wrist between them.

"It's broken," she whispered.

Why was Astra so soft spoken? So careful?

"I'll heal."

Astra's palm tilted Alex's face upward. "You must, Agent Danvers."

She tried her crooked smile. The one she knew carried the maximum swagger.

But Astra shut her up with a kiss.

It would have been perfect, but Lucy appeared in the alleyway, soaked through and panting and blue eyes wide with concern.

And then shock.

And above all their heads was another would be savior. Who boomed from the scene in mute hurt.

***

Fuck.

***

She woke up in the hospital. Lucy was by her bedside with dark smudges of exhaustion beneath her eyes.

She’d changed at some point—into a tight skirt and revealing top. Alex Danver’s girlfriend—not her handler. She smiled weakly when Alex caught her eye. Leaned onto the bed to kiss the side of her mouth and say, “They’re watching.”

Bruno and his man, pacing on the other side of the curtain.

Alex played with Lucy’s hair to keep her close. Tangling a finger with chipped nail through neat brown strands. “The others?”

Lucy pressed her forehead to Alex’s. Put on a smile they both knew wasn’t real. “Chatting—I think. In the desert.”

“Kara didn’t—“

“Your girlfriend is fine.”

She pulled away and turned to the curtain before Alex could see her face. But she kept a grip on Alex’s hand. Laced their fingers together.

“She’s awake,” she called.

And Bruno sauntered in, snapping the curtain away. “Holy shit,” he cried. “You look like you went ten rounds with a rock!”

Alex grimaced and tried to sit up, and Lucy was there, careful hands supporting her. “Less than that.”

“Cop friend said the guy _exploded_. Pow. Shards of rock everywhere.”

She shrugged. The pain in her wrist had been dulled by meds, but it still twinged. “Used to work for the other side right? Got some tricks up my sleeve.”

“Kind that wear a cape?” He said it with an affable smile, but there was something hard beneath.

“A cape’s why I lost my job Bruno.”

“Yeah.” He nodded like he might have agreed. “The capes are lousy. Lording over all of us. Telling us what to do.”

“Totally agree.”

He didn’t call her a liar, though he could have. Instead he nodded again and slapped her on the shoulder and ignored her hiss of pain. “Get some rest Alex. Take the rest of the week.”

“Bruno—“

“You got laid out by a guy made of granite. Take the rest of the week. Heal up. On Monday we’ll chat.”

***

Lucy rode home with her, a gap as big as a canyon between them in the back of the cab.

“I’m glad you’re okay,” she said softly.

“Thanks for coming,” Alex said, and her throat was scratchy. She really wanted some water.

“Not like I needed to be there. Seemed to have plenty of rescuers.”

“Least I don’t have to sit through an awkward ‘guess who’s alive’ conversation now.”

“Small favors.” She smiled. Alex smiled back.

“That thing with you and Kara’s aunt—“

“It’s new.”

“I was going to ask if it’s serious. It looked serious.”

Alex hadn’t even put a label on what she and Astra were. Fuck, they couldn’t even quantify their relationship _before_ she hoisted her up onto the kitchen counter and dove between her thighs. Trying to add other concepts like levels of seriousness to the equation was just—

She looked out the window. “You know Astra got a job? She wants to prove to Kara she’s changed so she went out and got a job. Was staying with me because she needed an address and figured I could teach her how to be…human I guess. Everything so Kara would forgive her for Myriad and the Fort Rozz invasion.”

It had stopped raining, but the streets were still wet and splashed gray water up onto the cars. It streaked across the glass.

The cab driver was blaring music through the speakers up front. Some old soul music filtering through the plexiglass.

“And then I fucked it up.”

“More like you fucked—sorry.”

They both laughed, but then Alex had to look away and let the mirth die on her lips. Had to ignore the way Lucy was looking at her. It was a look she couldn’t even begin to grasp. Between the pain and the meds and the exhaustion.

“I want my sister and I both to be happy, but I can’t seem to.” She hissed and clenched her jaw. “I just can’t seem to figure it out.”

“When you do let me know?” God Lucy Lane had a smile that could end a world. “Sister of a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist married to a—you know—and everything. I could probably use a tip or two.”

Alex resisted the urge to reach out and squeeze Lucy’s hand and kiss her on the lips.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So...the rating changed.
> 
> YOU know why.

Cat would have noticed even if she wasn't positive Kara was Supergirl. Her concern for Kara could, in fact, exist separate from her feelings for Supergirl.

As confusing as that all was.

And it was _deeply_ confusing.

She saw how _wane_ Kara looked as she shuffled through the office, doing her job and feigning cheer with her coworkers. The girl--woman--was weary.

And Kara was never weary. It was one of the reasons Cat had liked her long before she was donning tights and catching planes out of the sky.

"Everything all right," she asked when Kara dropped off proofs. She didn't look up from her computer, but she could see Kara abruptly stop.

"Ms. Grant?"

"You seem _tired_ Kara."

Kara tried to smile, but it was a pathetic attempt. "I've just got something personal--I mean." She took a deep breath. "I won't let it affect my work."

"See that you don't."

***

It didn't affect her work, until Alex Danvers appeared on the floor.

The woman, who Cat had known only distantly as some sort of distraction for Kara, looked awful. There was tape on her healing nose, and sunglasses to hide the fading bruises under her eyes, and a black cast was wrapped tightly around her wrist.

The loose fitting flannel shirt and leather jacket didn't help the look either. She stuck out in the sea of gentle pastels most people on the floor wore. Stuck out like a very sore thumb.

Cat tipped her glasses down her nose to glare at her as she followed Kara around, whispering in a hurried rush and looking pained.

But Kara's chin seemed set in stone and she was looking anywhere but at her sister.

She was _angry_ with her.

Curious.

Cat had always assumed they were bosom buddies. Though, if her theory about Kara being Supergirl was true, there had to be _some_ kind of resentment. Some dark thoughts the two women harbored. No one was saintly enough to not be a little jealous of someone else, and an alien refugee and her normal human sister?

Oh Cat could pull whole issues of her magazine out of _their_ issues.

As though Kara could sense Cat's thoughts she spun around to look at her, her pony tail whipping through the air behind her.

Cat could have looked away.

Would have.

But something told her to hold the gaze. To stare down her former assistant.

Kara's sister stared too.

Then others.

Which…was unnerving.

Definitely not what she was going for.

She followed their eyes and slowly turned in her chair. Focused on the quiet drone of her TVs.

"--appeared out of nowhere and attacked a downtown restaurant in search of Superman--"

She stood up and turned face the TVs fully as each one slowly flickered over to live coverage in Metropolis.

Her hand went to her mouth to strangle the gasp, because Metropolis was in the throes of chaos unlike any Cat had ever seen.

Behind her the staff trickled in, one by one. They could watch the news from any of the TVs in the building and be fine. It was a CatCo-owned news crew there on the ground witnessing the destruction. So it was going to be on every TV.

But Cat’s office was wired for sound. It was easier to hear the newscaster. Their voice a near scream over the chaos behind them.

Cat's heart seemed to rattle up into her throat.

Superman was locked in mortal combat with some kind of alien. Shorter than Superman, but broader. As fast. As strong. A warrior judging by the armor and the terrible look in the creature’s beady eyes.

It could be ape-like. There was a grim simian quality to it, but those eyes seemed too clever and the grin too full of malice.

She glanced behind her. Saw Kara watching the screen. Her sister’s hand half forgotten on her elbow. Saw Kara’s glassy eyes and the drawn look. A confirmation of truths Kara would never admit to.

That wasn't just the look of another Superman fan.

The creature threw Superman into an oil tanker and it exploded in a geyser of flame messier and not as pretty as the movies. There was more dust and smoke. Less bright shocks of orange fire.

When Cat turned back around Kara was gone and Alex Danvers was standing in her place. Uninjured hand clenched into a fist and dark eyes focused on the screen.

She hadn’t even heard Kara leave.

The fight in Metropolis was vicious and people scattered, but they kept coming back. Gathering around the fight like children at school. The creature threw a still greasy and soot covered Superman down the street and he flipped and rolled on the pavement, sending chunks of it everywhere. Less a man, but a figure cut from steel and disguised as one of them.

Lois Lane, of all people, cried out. Seemed like she might take on the monster herself.

The crowd stopped her.

Why was she even there? On the ground. In the middle of a war.

The beast spoke in a booming roll of a language that crashed against Cat’s ears. Rattled the speakers in her office.

He picked up a car. Twisted the end of it into a point as he lumbered towards Superman, who was trying to pull himself together. To stand up. To fight.

Earth’s greatest hero hadn’t been prepared.

The creature held his new spear of his head, said something that could only mean death for Superman.

Maybe for the rest of them too.

Cat suddenly felt very lonely. Wanted a sure hand in hers. A a solid presence at her back.

Someone in the room cried out as the spear came down. Someone else fainted.

Cat would fire them later.

After she pulled herself away from the screen.

Because suddenly there was a BOOM and the camera, the glass of the building, _everything_ trembled. The spear clattered to the ground and the creature rocketed down the street as if thrown and Supergirl was standing between it and Superman—her cousin.

Protecting him.

Earth’s last stand was a girl in a skirt with a goofy (if winning) smile, and a tendency to babble.

Her cape fluttered in the wind.

The creature’s malicious grin returned and it roared a challenge.

And Supergirl’s mouth twisted into a grimace.

Gods at war.

That’s all there was to define the battle. It happened too fast for the camera to keep up with. They didn’t just punch one another, they knocked each other blocks down the street. An uppercut sent the creature over a skyscraper and a kick launched Supergirl through three buildings.

Cat was sure it was Lois again, shouting about getting the fight away. And Supergirl seemed to understand.

She threw herself and the creature out of Metropolis.

The news cut back to the studio where a sweaty newscaster tried to look calm.

Assured.

Then to quick glimpses of the fight across the Atlantic seaboard and into the Appalachians.

Mountains trembled.

And then the fight was in Metropolis again.

And it was the creature half broken this time. Leaping back down into the original scene of the fight and acting…frantic.

He was looking for something.

He was trying to escape.

And Supergirl calmly followed. Face still. Eyes hooded with something quiet and confident and terrifying.

He found what he sought. Grabbed it. Smiled. Not with malice now, but _relief_.

And Supergirl snatched it from him and crushed it in her hand. Then she punched him to his knees and when he tried to return the blow—feeble—exhausted—she caught it neatly.

And it wasn’t Supergirl. Not _Cat’s_ Supergirl. Not the shy, wonderful, kind idiot of a woman who hovered outside her window and took her on picnics to her own roof (and forgot and left her there twice).

This woman holding the monster’s fist in her hand was foreign. There was something distinctly imperious about her disgust and anger with the creature. Something awful and superior.

Kryptonian.

Like Non and his soldiers.

Like that once sick Supergirl.

The creature uttered something in that language and Supergirl understood.

Because she said something back. Same rolling boom of a language uttered as casually as Cat spoke French.

The creature laughed. Spat a gob of what could only be blood onto the street. Sneered more words.

And somehow Supergirl’s high-handed glare grew colder.

She broke the creature’s hand with a squeeze.

Cat’s own stations would later report that the crack of such otherworldly bones could be heard from miles away.

It destroyed the microphones on site and the crowd all covered their ears.

The creature’s scream was lost in the noise.

After the crack and the scream there was a boom and light appeared behind the creature. Too bright for any television to display.

The reporter would later say it seemed as though the light emerged from fractures in reality.

Cat would briefly consider having the reporter committed.

Until Lois said similar (only more eloquently) in her story for the Planet.

A dark shadow stood in the light, and the creature scampered in, and Supergirl was a snapshot of life. The urge to chase and the urge to stay captured in pose. Half in flight. Hand curled into a fist.

The light went away and the CatCo cameraman kept their camera on Supergirl.

She seemed to stare at her own hands, and Cat was sure she saw a flicker of regret cross Supergirl’s face. Then Supergirl blinked and it was gone. She watched her throat bob as she swallowed.

Lois Lane rushed past her to help Superman to his feet. He was messy and dirty, that perfect hair in his eyes. He seemed to say something. English. Kryptonian. It was too quiet for the ruined microphones to hear.

Supergirl squared her jaw, shook her head, and flew away.

***

No one knew what the creature was. The Planet reported it was a lost alien, and that the Earth was safe Cat found Olsen, shakey and distant in his office, and told him to contact Supergirl.

He said he'd try, but that she was incommunicado. “Not even talking to her cousin.”

Alex Danvers “mysteriously” disappeared, and Cat “accidentally” stopped by Kara’s office three times only to find it empty. Her out of office email response said she was in a meeting across town.

That was the biggest and laziest lie Cat had ever heard, but seeing as her single attempt to call Kara went directly to voicemail she was going to have to go with it.

At six the office began to clear out, as it often did, and Alex Danvers returned, pulled James and the IT monkey into a hushed meeting. They all streamed out with their faces glued to their phones.

Well, except Danvers. Her eyes were on Cat, peering at her through the glass of her office.

She looked as though she might take a step towards her. Stopped. Then nodded like they’d shared some non-verbal communication Cat had completely missed and left.

And Cat went back to work. Carter was with his dad on a business trip in Gotham so there was no reason to rush home, and half the stories on the Tribune’s website hadn’t had a top edit when they’d gone up during the brawl in Metropolis, so there was plenty to back read—even though she rarely ever took on that task anymore.

The night editors all seemed to quail in their virtual boots as she slashed and hacked terrible copy. By nine o’clock she was done looking at bad grammar and terrible attempts at AP style, so she poured herself a glass of bourbon and went out to the balcony to drink away an absolutely terrible day.

And Supergirl was there. Curled up in a chair, cape wrapped around her like a blanket, and hugging her knees as she watched the city go by.

“Sorry,” she said, never actually moving to look at Cat. “I needed some peace and quiet.”

“So you chose a high rise in the middle of the city?”

“Anybody looking for me wouldn’t want to come within ten feet of you.”

“I don’t know whether to be flattered or offended.”

“Both?”

She sipped her drink and leaned on an armrest of the chair opposite her. “You had a busy afternoon.”

“I don’t…I don’t want to talk about it.”

“I’d hazard to say that bottling things up is why that alien will need a few pins in his hand.”

“Kalibak will be fine.”

“It has a name?”

“It has a name.”

“The race or—“

“Kalibak is _his_ name. His people are the—“ She said some word that Cat was fairly certain a human would be incapable of pronouncing.

“Translated?”

“New God.”

“How positively heretical.”

Supergirl smiled. “His people live in a separate dimension from ours. They’re…as close as most will get to gods.”

“And you broke his hand.”

“When I was…before Kal-El was born the two warring factions of the New Gods came to Krypton. Signed a peace treaty. All the houses were there. It was supposed to be a great moment for Krypton--bringing the kind of peace only the Corp could bring."

Cat had no idea what "the Corp" was, but she was struck by Supergirl's misery. A kind of despondence Cat considered foreign to the usually chipper Supergirl.

"He was," she pulled the cape tighter around herself. "He was mocking Krypton's destruction."

"So you hurt him."

“’Earth won't be hurt. The peace is still intact, even if Krypton isn’t.’ That's what he said."

It was undoubtedly cruel. Cat started to reach for Supergirl, but stopped herself.

As close as they'd become, as much affection as there was between them, some gaps hadn't been breeched often enough. Supergirl came to her for inspiration, not comfort, and Cat wasn't--she wasn't _equipped_ for comfort. It was as foreign as the words Supergirl had uttered.

"When he spoke, was that Kryptonian?"

"No."

"But you're fluent."

"Kryptonians have a knack for language."

"How many do you speak?"

"A lot--can we not talk?"

Cat held her free hand up, then took a seat beside Supergirl and sipped her drink.

The wind against the windows and the sluggish beat of helicopter rotors and the distant beep of cars. Sometimes it could be a cacophony, but now it was peaceful white noise.

Cat tucked her feet under herself and shivered against the oncoming chill.

A flash of red fluttered before her eyes. Supergirl's cape.

She draped it over her bare legs and tried not to think of how it smelled. Like war and heat and Supergirl herself.

The silence grew painful, but Cat refused to break it. As easy as it would be to demand answers or walk away. Supergirl, as kind as she was, would oblige.

It was Superman who ended the silence. Drifting quietly into view, broad arms crossed over a broader chest. Eyes like ice chips. Dark hair slicked back into an oily coif.

He nodded at Cat, "Ms. Grant."

"This is a surprise."

"Is it?"

No, it wasn't.

He focused on Supergirl, his cousin. "We should talk."

Supergirl sighed and pulled her cape off Cat with an apologetic smile. The two of them, Kryptonian cousins, gently flew above Cat, until they were specs in the light of the moon.

She struggled to hear them, straining her painfully human ears. There were a few moments of raised voices. A definite questioning of Supergirl’s relationship with Cat that had her toasting the heavens and thinking about going in for another drink.

The argument seemed to taper off until Superman's hands were raised in submission.

Cat could barely make them out, but she was sure Superman wanted to hug his cousin. Only he refrained, floating back like flying was the most natural thing in the world, and then jetting off into the darkness.

Supergirl eventually returned to earth too.

"Family spat?"

"I can't tell if he's madder about Kalibak or you."

"You should consider new family and friends, Supergirl. Seems the current stock all hates me."

"They don't know you."

"And you do?"

She landed gently on her knees in front of Cat, hands hot on her thighs. "Yeah," she said. And the kiss that followed left no question of her feelings, or her ability to make Cat's toes curls and her heart beat too fast.

Cat pressed her hand to Supergirl's cheek, which the other woman just took as an invitation to kiss her wrist.

Cat made some very unbecoming noise in the back of her throat at the sensation. At least _she_ thought it was unbecoming. Supergirl surged up to press her wet mouth to Cat's neck, her teeth scraping just roughly enough across Cat's pulse point.

She gasped and felt Supergirl's smile, and Supergirl’s fingers, busy and sure at her knee, softly plucking at the bottom of Cat’s skirt in invitation.

She took a handful of Supergirl's hair and pulled her back, kissing her roughly and trying to ignore the sensation growing in the pit of her. Abject lust tinged with confusion and frustration. "Are you about to fuck me to piss of Superman?"

Supergirl's open mouth smile, lips running across her teeth, was admission enough. But she slunk away, her hair sliding out from between Cat's fingers strand by and strand, and her hand carefully parting Cat's legs.

She nipped at Cat’s inner thigh, quietly encouraging one of her legs up onto those exquisite shoulders.

"I'm about to fuck you because I want to."

Another open mouth kiss to her other thigh. Her nose brushed Cat's underwear and she couldn't even begin to say how wet she was.

"Shoddy foundation to start a relationship on Supergirl."

She found her legs twitching--the need to thrust up into that warm mouth nearly uncontrollable.

Supergirl snagged at the crotch of her panties with her teeth, let them snap back into place. Her hands pulled Cat's skirt up until it was nearly pressed to her breasts.

"You really think my need to be inside you has anything to do with my family?"

Cat couldn't speak, not with the way Supergirl's tongue swept across her underwear. She was positive she'd come undone if there’d been no small scrap of fabric between her and Supergirl's mouth.

She pulled at her hair again, roughly forcing Supergirl to make eye contact with her, even as her lips and teeth and tongue undid every part of Cat.

"I need to know this is more than acting out at authority. That--oh God." Her head fell back against the cushion of the chair as Supergirl pulled her panties aside. Oh fucking--

She stuttered. Swallowed. ”Please. Tell me it's more than that."

The way Supergirl crawled up Cat's body was almost as bad as the way her mouth had felt on Cat's sex. She tried, very hard, not to pant.

And the infuriating woman _knew_ it. Grinned like she could read Cat like a book.

When she did pant Supergirl was there. Seeming to draw it from her with another messy kiss. Then her fingers were inside Cat.

"It's more," she said, against Cat’s cheek. "You're more."

There was the faint taste of herself as Supergirl's tongue swept into her mouth.

And damn it. It was more.

Whatever was happening between her and Supergirl was _so much_ more than she was used to. Terrifying and perfect and she didn't even have a name to cry as she came, face pressed to Supergirl's shoulder, hand in Supergirl's hair.

She was fucking a ghost. Or an alien. Right. An alien. She was fucking an alien and she didn't even know her name.

And as she forced Supergirl down onto the pavement, on to her back, and ignored the giddy smile to tugg at the dark tights Supergirl wore under her skirt, Cat realized that needed to change. Desperately.

Because she was tired of taking it slow and being careful and caring only when the whim took her.

She wanted more.

***

Cat came into work later than usual the next morning. She hadn’t left until after two, and had to drive herself home, and a few hours of sex in outdoor furniture and on her balcony had even her perfectly cultivated body sore.

She couldn’t even erase the bags under her eyes. Had to settle on extra cover up and large sunglasses.

And when she got in Kara saw her and said nothing. No knowing look. No little smirk. Not even a quick uptick of the corners of her mouth.

Most of Cat was tender to the touch and there was Kara looking like she’d had a full night’s rest. It was James Olsen who asked Cat if everything was okay. Kara was standing behind him, and if Cat hadn’t almost assuredly been between her legs the night before she never would have known they’d slept together.

The heinous bitch had a poker face like a politician.

“Everything’s fine,” Cat said through gritted teeth.

But it wasn’t.

And if she had anything to say about it, it wouldn’t be for Kara Danvers either.

No one fucked Cat Grant and pretended it didn’t happen.

Even Supergirl.


	8. Chapter 8

Lois was nearly thirty and in love. Not that she'd admit it. To anyone. Especially not to the dorky farm boy object of her affection. As far as he was concerned they were reluctant friend. And as far as Lois was concerned that was just fine.

She didn't need the messiness of a workplace relationship. Not when Superman existed in their world and was being courted and hunted by every journalist worth their salt.

Not when she was using Superman's (very) obvious crush on her to pry out information before anyone else—especially golden child Cat Grant.

She needed to focus on work. Not romance.

That didn't stop her from an impromptu visit to Clark's apartment. He'd been out of work for two days and she was concerned.

Chummy coworker concerned.

She heard loud crashes and hurried whispers before Clark answered the door, glasses askew and hair slicked back. Made him look almost like Super--

"Lois! What--what are you doing here?"

It was the way he stood in the doorway, door pressed to his side and his big frame hiding anything behind him.

She narrowed her eyes.

He was hiding something.

Clearly.

She pushed him aside and strode in, chest puffed out and chin pointed up, ready and eager to judge his little rendezvous...

It was a girl. Not a girl, but a girl. A kid. Blond hair in her eyes, and mouth screwed up in fear. She was wrapped tightly in a blanket and sitting in huddled in the corner of Clark's lumpy little couch.

"This is..."

Lois looked from the girl, who winced at every sound, and back to Clark.

"She's a refugee. I'm trying to help her."

What the hell?

The little girl said something in a quick melody of a language, and Lois was pretty okay with languages, but she had no idea what the heck the kid was speaking.

"From Albania," Clark said slowly.

The girl said something else and Clark scowled before responding. Not quite as smooth. Whatever it was he clearly wasn't a native speaker.

Lois continued to stare.

"Why," she eventually said, "are you harboring a tiny Albanian refugee?"

"I met her through a...story."

It was ridiculous. One of Clark's worst lies yet--and the guy was really bad at lying. Didn't have a dishonest bone on his body.

Suddenly he and the girl both perked up like dogs at the toot of a whistle.

Clark made another painful excuse and left Lois to watch his little waif.

She would have been shocked by his hasty exit, but Clark had a tendency to beat it suddenly. It was kind of his shtick.

The girl studied Lois like she could see right through her. That unerring gaze Lois had only seen from superheroes.

"Lois Lane.” She stuck her hand out and waited for the girl to shake it, but the girl kept staring.

She tried again. Motioned to herself. "Lois. Lane."

The girl watched Lois’s mouth this time as she said it.

The girl finally spoke, softly. "Kara."

***

Lois had dealt with refugees before. She’d been sent all over the world to report on some of the most heartbreaking stories of the human experience. One thing she'd learned, at least when it came to dealing with the kids, was to talk. Be goofy and boisterous until they were comfortable.

Not always—some kids really needed space and silence. But Kara seemed like a kid scared into sullenness rather than naturally quiet.

“You like pizza?”

Did they have pizza in Albania?

“I’m gonna get a pizza. Maybe two pizzas? I’m kind of hungry and I know for a fact Clark keeps a twenty in his bedroom.”

She said it as she waltzed in and rooted through the coffee can he kept on his dress.

Kara watched from the doorway, blanket clutched around her like a cape.

“See!” She produced the twenty. “Them Kansas kids. Hoarding things like it’s the Great Depression. Must be their parents right? Or their parents’ parents? I don’t know.”

She moved past the girl again, having to squeeze by her when she made no effort to get out of the doorway.

It was like squeezing past a pillar of rock.

“You’re pretty solid? How old are you? Guessing…forty? Forty-five?”

Not even a giggle.

“But really maybe eleven to thirteen? Puberty is clearly just starting to kick in. It’s gonna be a kick in the pants, kid. Sorry about that. My sister gets PMS so bad she has to cut school sometimes.”

The girl tilted her head. She was smart—Lois could see that. She was trying to suss out what Lois was saying—even if it was all Greek to her.

“Maybe you already figured it out? Short of an anatomy lesson with a two liters of Big Red we should probably skip that particular conversation huh?”

She rooted through drawers filled with dumb magnets and other kitch Clark had picked up on his travels.

“Any idea where you pal Clark is storing the takeout menus?”

The girl was standing on the other side of the little kitchen island, one hand white knuckled around her blanket.

“Maybe—hah! Course he keeps it on the fridge. Do you know how this guy eats? Terribly is how. He’s going to have diabetes before he’s forty.And a big fat ass. Which I can say. Because you don’t speak english. So you don’t know bad words. Ass. Ass. Ass. Fuck.”

“Fuck?”

Lois stopped perusing the menu.

The girl look very inquisitive. “Fuck,” she said again.

“Fuck,” Lois said. “That’s what we’re having Kara. Couple of big slices of fuck me Clark is going to murder me. You want pepperoni or hamburger?” She laughed. “Fuck it. Why not both!”

They sat on opposite ends of Clark’s couch. Which was actually kind of difficult—it was more of a sofa and there was only space for a person between them. Half of one after Lois tucked her feet up under herself.

She tried a few shows, but the girl flinched at everything loud, violent, or especially musical. They ended up on His Girl Friday—a particular favorite of Lois’s. She chatted all the way through, pausing only to hop up and get the pizza when it came.

The kid seemed to know it was there first though. Her head snapped around and eyes settled on the door before the guy even knocked.

Kara ate in silence and Lois kept up the conversation for both of them, only pausing to take a bite.

And then Clark swooped back in, reeking of smoke.

Kara actually smiled and spoke quickly. The language (Lois seriously doubted it was really Albanian) sounded musical. Like some you’d buy on a CD.

Clark was clearly lost, but nodded like he understood. "That's great," he said in English. Then he caught himself and said it again in whatever the girl spoke.

Her smile faltered a little. Maybe it was Clark speaking English. Or it was how bad his "Albanian" was.

"Go easy on him, kid."

Kara brightened again, and then in careful English, just a brush of an accent, she said, "Thank you."

Her enthusiastic hug broke two of Lois's ribs.

***

Lois didn't get a chance to talk to the girl again. Clark said she'd found family and apologized again. Profusely. "She was a body builder in...Albania."

Cat, breezing in for her once a month appearance in the office, paused. "The farm boy is dating an Albanian bodybuilder?"

"No! She's my--"

Cat smirked. "Better hit the gym, Lane."

Lois was fully prepared to tell Cat where she could shove her unsolicited comments, but the office was attacked by some kind of evil magic something, and by the time it was resolved Lois had been changed into two animals and one invertebrates.

***

She never followed up.

***

The first report showed up in her Twitter feed. "Woman catches plane."

Then it spread to the blogs, a noisy and underexposed picture of a soaked through woman standing on the wing of a plane.

Clark missed it. He was in the kitchen, cooking a late dinner, and bopping his head to music on his headphones.

Lois plucked an olive off the cutting board and turned on the TV.

There was the woman again.

National City.

Pity that hadn't been James's flight. He would have gotten a much better photo.

She pulled one of Clark's ear phones away from his ear. "You've got company."

He stopped cutting to look over his shoulder at the TV.

Then his normally goofy little face hardened.

"Take it from that look you know her?"

He sighed and dropped both headphones down around his neck.

"Yeah. I don't...I mean I'm happy, but there are other ways to..."

He waved at the screen.

"Come out?"

"Appropriative, but yeah."

God, Clark was cute when he got all social justice.

"Who is she?"

"Kryptonian."

He said it so casually, like he hadn't been hiding a survivor of his extinct planet in plain sight.

Then it just clicked. It had been twelve years, but as much as she let it slide she'd never really forgotten about-- "The Albanian bodybuilder."

Clark's little smile was shy--almost wistful. "Yeah. That's her."

"And you didn't feel like, maybe, mentioning that there was another Kryptonian on earth?"

"I wanted her to have a normal life."

"Clearly she wanted differently."

"Yeah, but you've seen our lives? I couldn't bring her into that, Kryptonian or not."

"Does James know? Is she--is she why he moved there?"

"What? No. I mean I told him. After he accepted the job. But--"

She flicked an olive at his head. "The biggest story of the year and you just casually passed it to Jimmy Olsen."

"He's not going to report on her Lois. Just…help her out."

"So who is going to report? Because I guarantee you Cat Grant is already looking for her, and Bruce Wayne aside, she is not known for sitting on a superhero story."

"I'm not gonna interfere Lois, and neither should you. Kara needs to figure this out herself."

"She can catch planes Clark. Those kind of powers need training wheels."

"I didn't have any."

"And how did that work out with your first fight with Metallo?"

He groaned. "Lois. I'm serious. We're leaving this alone. If Kara needs help she can ask."

Lois threw her hands up in the air and stalked out of the room muttering about Kryptonians the entire time.

***

His cousin.

The news broke while Lois was on the train and headed into the office. She copied the link to Cat's article and repeatedly pasted it in a text to Clark until he finally relented with a terse "omw."

She met him on top of the Daily Planet building, where the sun cast off the giant rotating globe and gave them both a bronze glow.

Clark was dressed for work, hair slicked back and cape fluttering in the early morning breeze.

"Your cousin?!"

He at least looked abashed.

"Not just another survivor, but your cousin. Actual family."

"She was sent to protect me. Near as we could tell her pod got knocked off course."

"And when she landed you said...what? Time to pawn her off?"

"I--I was twenty-four Lois. My dad had just died and my mom was a mess. Neither of us could have handled a 13 year old with superpowers."

"But some strangers could?"

"They're not...they're not strangers. They'd helped me before, during that thing when Lex bought Star Labs and I need another scientist. And they had a daughter the same age. It just...it made sense."

"For them to watch her maybe, but you didn't even mention her to me until the plane. Do you even have a relationship with her?"

"Of course I do!"

"She wasn't at our wedding Clark. Or any Christmases. Does Martha know?"

"Probably now," he muttered.

She'd never wanted to set her husband on fire more.

"And you left her to Cat Grant. She is not safe around that harpy."

"Cat'd probably say the same about you."

"Difference is I wouldn't have named the kid Supergirl and outed her as your cousin."

"You had no problem outing me as an alien in our first interview."

"That was different! I didn't even know you Clark. And this girl...she's family."

There it was. That squaring of his jaw again. Like the reminder of his relationship to Supergirl was some bruise and Lois was poking it.

"Right," she asked. Carefully.

Clark was usually pretty open about the whole dead planet thing. Like any adopted kid with no hope of seeing his birth family there was a bit of an ache there. A melancholy that could strike at inopportune moments. Especially when people were celebrating big family traditions.

But he was proud of his heritage. Had an entire shrine to it buried in the ice of the Arctic.

She remembered the first time he'd taken her up there. Gleefully showed her the holograms of his parents and the fancy robot that maintained everything.

"It's called a Kalex. The Kryptonians all had one. Like a butler and a protector combined."

She didn't think that was entirely accurate, and the thing's flawless Englsih was unnerving.

"It learned in like three days. It's been trying to teach me Kryptonese, but that's been a little more difficult."

Clark even wore his past as an actual badge. On his chest.

And here he had a living breathing connection to his lost world and he'd just...shuttled the kid off. Like she was some kind of inconvenience.

Clark reluctantly admitted she was family.

"But she has a new family Lois. I'm not gonna change the game on her now. Besides it'd be dangerous. To her family and mine."

"So we just let her live her life?"

"Yeah. We do."

***

That was Clark's mantra when the kid nearly got creamed by Clark's old enemy. And when she fought some mystery woman high over National City, and when the Martian Manhunter only barely stopped her from committing homicide.

But then came Myriad, and the reveal that Supergirl saved not just National City, but the world, from a group of criminal Kryptonians.

"Did you know they were here," Lois asked Clark.

"I had an idea."

"You know," she sighed, "for a guy with a shrine to the place you don't seem to crazy about getting to know actual Kryptonians."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You've practically abandoned your own cousin, and now there was a whole group of your people--"

"Criminals--"

"And you didn't even try Clark."

"Maybe I'm okay with not knowing everything," he said softly.

"Clark..."

"My people destroyed their whole world. Kara had legends instead of animals. Paintings instead of plantlife. She--all of them--grew up in the husk of a planet. How am I supposed to relate to that?"

How was Lois supposed to relate to a husband who put on tights and fought crime?

"You try, Clark."

***

Then came Kalibak.

***

It had been years since there was a fight as destructive as the one between the Clark, Kara, and whatever Kalibak was. Buildings narrowly averted collapse, but six people died, and the destruction shocked the nation.

Yet it was Supergirl, imperious and alien in her violence, that really unnerved people. Every blog had a think piece. Talking heads appeared on all the late night talk shows to fret.

Perry threatened to fire Lois if she didn't do a follow up to her report. Where did she stand on Supergirl.

The problem was she didn't know the kid. Sure she could remember the shell shocked girl who cracked her ribs with a hug, but that wasn't exactly Daily Planet fair.

"Hey Lucy, you've been doing lots of hush hush government work in National City right?"

Her little sister was quiet a moment. Just dead air over the phone.

Finally, “Why?"

"I'm doing a story on Supergirl. Just curious...you meet her?"

"What do you think?" She was the ex of James, and he definitely knew the kid. Lois had also skipped calling him, because he’d go straight to Clark afterwards.

"And?"

Lucy sighed. "And nothing. She's charming. A little dorky. A lot like the big guy." She laughed. That dark and self deprecating one that always left Lois feeling like a bad big sister. "She's even got an attachment to James."

"Are they..."

"I dumped him so they could be, but they never got their act together. They're just...friends."

"How close?"

"Hang out every day and invite me over for game night."

"Shoot me in the face," Lois muttered.

"I've desperately wanted to shoot someone over it, but the game nights aren't bad."

"A game night with Jimmy and two of his exes sounds terrible Lucy."

"Yeah but other people come."

She pitched her voice up when she said it. "Other." Like people she liked. A lot.

Lois smirked. "What kind of other?"

"Oh my god."

"Lil' Lucy got a crush?"

"No. Yes. They're seeing someone else. Sort of."

"Sex friends?"

"That would involve them defining things and they're too much of a hot mess for that."

"By the obsessive use of the singular they I'm gonna assume it's either a lovely person who eschews binary gender or--"

"I understood exactly two words in that sentence."

"Or it's a woman and you don't want to tell me about your big gay crush."

More dead air.

Lois curled into the phone--the call suddenly taking on more weight. "You know Don't Ask, Don't Tell isn't a thing anymore right?"

"You try telling Dad that," Lucy groused.

"I have. And will again." Lucy kept her mouth shut. "So are you really into a girl? What's she like? Is she butch? Femme? Little from column A--"

"She's nice Lois. I mean she's a mess and couldn't figure out her personal life if her entire life depended on it. But she's one of the best people I've ever met in government and crazy loyal and apparently I have a Florence Nightingale kink because she brings it right out of me."

"That is...a lot of information to process."

"I know. She's Supergirl's sister too."

"You're crushing on a Kryptonian?"

"Human sister. Her parents--"

"Took Kara in."

"You know her name?"

"I met her. Right when she got here? Haven't seen her since. But she said her name was Kara."

"She's a good kid Lois. Or woman. Probably woman."

"And you're lusting for her sister. You know if you hurt her, Supergirl could throw you into space."

"I don't think she's the one that'll get hurt," she said softly.

"You need me to throw this chick into space?"

"No." She laughed. "It'll be fine. I'll get over it eventually."

"I can make it happen though. Or buried under a mountain. I've got some serious superhero pull."

"Thanks Lois."

"That's what big sisters are for. Threats and squeezing you for information."

"Sure you know that was all off the record right?"

"That's not actually how that works--"

"Off the record or I tell Dad who really freed Titano before his test flight."

"You wouldn't"

"Watch me. Also, and you didn't hear this from me, but maybe call Cat Grant?"

"So I can contemplate stabbing my ear canals?"

"She can give you stuff on the record. She's Supergirl's friend Lois. Not Kara's."

"What's that supposed to mean."

"Probably something."

***

"Either someone died or you're finally calling to admit I'm the better reporter."

Cat had a smug sense of superiority in her tone. It was there every time they talked. Even in the heart to hearts--which happened more often than either of them were comfortable with.

"I can't admit what isn't true," Lois chirped. "It wouldn't be ethical."

"What do you want Lane?"

"Lane? Calling me that how are you supposed to tell me apart from my sister."

"She's younger. Prettier. Smarter. Honestly Lois are you okay? You don't normal leave yourself so wide open."

Cat Grant had a reputation for being cartoonishly monstrous to her employees. But she was also one of the sharpest reporters Lois had ever met. Lois was a big broadsword. Hacking her way towards the truth. But Cat was an assassin's knife. All guile and ruses. They got to the same place often enough, but by very different means.

But Lois also liked telling honest stories more than stories people wanted to hear. So she was a six figure reporter and Cat was a nine figure mogul.

Their roads had diverged.

"I'm doing a story on Supergirl."

Straight to the point with Cat. Double speak, circuitous means--they were worthless around her.

The sharp intake of breath wasn't missed. "I wasn't aware the Planet even knew she existed. You're always so focused on the men in the capes."

"Didn't want to step on your toes. But now..."

"Supergirl made a rather intimidating show in Metropolis."

"She terrified people Cat."

"What was the one headline? 'Fuck Supergirl?'"

God bless the blogs.

"Yes they can be awfully candid."

"That's one word for it."

"But they had a point."

"Oh, I disagree."

"A bulletproof alien broke a creature's bones in front of a thousand people and she looked like she liked it Cat. No one actually wants that on their side."

"She had her reasons."

"Illuminate me."

"Not my place."

"We both know she won't talk to me about it. And you've claimed ownership of her before. Be her mouthpiece now."

"On the record."

"I'm on her side Cat. I just want to tell her story. Besides, between the two of us who has the tendency to editorialize?”

"Back to that again. It's been twenty years. When are you going to stop holding the Batman story against me."

"Because you didn't spike it to protect a cape, you spiked it because you were dating Bruce and didn't want your own career ruined."

"I had no idea you lived in my head Lois. Do you understand all my motives?"

"Back then you just had the one."

"And you've always had one too. Truth, no matter who it hurts."

Lois's fingers tightened around the phone. The sting of volleys they'd fired at one another of the years striking somewhere near the center of her chest.

"I draw the line at vigilante's identities. That's probably the only real thing you taught me." She said it quietly. Like a lower volume might better convey her utter sincerity.

Clearly it didn't. Cat was wry. "I'm touched."

"Cat, can we pretend we don't have two decades of shit between us for a moment? Because Superman, off the record, had no idea what Kalibak said, but Supergirl does. I just--we need to know."

There was the sound of something falling into a glass. I've maybe. Or the M&M's Cat kept in her office that had her CatCo logo on them.

"Did you know Supergirl remembers Krypton?” There was a lot of wonder in Cat’s voice. Something Lois could rarely remember hearing from her. “She wasn't some alien Moses sent down the river in a basket."

She was a shell shocked kid huddled on her cousin's couch. "I had an idea."

“That's what always strikes me about her, in the quiet moments. The grief she doesn't share."

"Does she ever talk about it?"

"Not often, and never--it's just her reminiscing. Casual talk about her parents or a school lesson." Cat laughed, dragged down her own well of memories. "She still keeps her faith. Every church of her religion is ash, but she still believes Lois."

"Kalibak mocked her religion."

"He mocked her loss."

"And the language? It wasn't Kryptonese.”

"I have no idea. But that Stan Winston reject is called a New God."

"Blasphemous."

"Quite."

"So yesterday Metropolis watched a girl fighting a God."

"Bible really didn't do it justice did it?"

"And then she just went and confessed it all to you? Seems awfully media savvy for a kid who outed herself as Superman's cousin in her first official interview. Why haven't you reported it Cat?”

"Don't play obtuse Lois. You're terrible at it."

"Okay." Big breath Lois. Time to ask terrifying questions that have just naturally occurred. "Why did Kara confess all that to you, in confidence, when she has family and friends who would listen?"

There was a long stretch of silence. Long enough that Lois briefly thought they'd disconnected. It was only the soft rustle of fabric that told her Cat was still on the line.

"This part is off the record, Cat. I won't write anything that has to do with you personally."

"And her?" There was a tremulous sigh. "Will you publish anything personal about...Kara?"

"Never. The Batman code," she joked.

"I suppose, speaking of Batman, he and Supergirl have more in common than they're ridiculous love of capes."

Just...God. "Cat."

"Lois," she challenged. Like she hadn't just said--

"She's a kid."

"Oh please. She's more mature than any of my exes--including Bruce. At least she had a good reason for the tights."

"I'm trying to be more high and mighty--but you're such a cradle robber Cat. I'm proud."

"Your husband is six years younger than you."

"He's practically a baby in cougar years."

"I'm hanging up."

"Oh come on! This is hilarious, if unlike you. You swore off the cape and tights set after Bruce."

"I'm well aware."

"So what changed?"

The sigh was tremulous and weighty. There was emotional importance in whatever Cat was about to say. Vulnerability too.

"She's good, Lois."

"So is Bruce. Or Superman."

"It's not just altruism. She cares about the people. The individuals."

Superman did too. Lois almost said it. Challenged Cat's view of the world.

"I understand Superman is wonderful and maybe he's even as fantastic as everyone says, but he's not her and he never--she cares."

About Cat.

Cat was in a relationship with a twenty-something alien refugee because that twenty-something alien refugee dared to care back.

That was the problem with Cat. She was almost absurdly empathetic and sharp. As sharp as Lois.

But Lois was nice--relatively speaking.

People liked her. Superheroes especially. And the frothy blogs that covered them.

People didn't like Cat. They saw all that theatrical nastiness that was just as much armor as Lois's brashness and they believed it.

Lois had assumed that was fine with Cat. She had a cute kid and a multimillion dollar empire and every celebrity's number on phone dial.

But between her put upon personality and the fame she'd chased and had chase her in return it could, absolutely, be lonely. Lois had never dared consider it.

"She's under your skin, Cat."

The laugh over the phone was shaky.

"You'd know though, wouldn't you Lois?"

***

The piece was 800 words.

The lead photo was a screenshot from the fight. Girl of Steel sweaty and dirty. Kalibak hulking in the foreground.

The headline: "Our Great American Refugee."

She talked about the girl she'd found huddled on a couch.

The girl with a need to defend a new homeland and protect the memory of an old one.

The girl who didn't build a shrine to her dead world, but harbored it in her heart.

The woman who fostered affection with a queen.

It was a big hit.


	9. Chapter 9

Whiskey was too sweet. Rum too acrid. And the well tequila was too rough.

So Alex drank vodka. Triple shots of it. Sip sip gulp. It burned, but it wasn’t a bad vodka and sort of reminded her of water.

She washed it down with beer. The ice cold American kind that definitely reminded her of water.

***

“We have to end things.”

That was what Astra had said. After her conversation with Kara in the desert she’d come back and ended things with Alex. Packed her meager thrift store belongings into Alex’s Amazon Fresh bags and looked hang dog.

“Kara found out about us so you’re breaking up with me?”

“She was clearly upset.”

“And she’ll get over it! We can’t—you can’t just let her dictate your personal life.”

“I’m not, but sleeping with you, as wonderful as it was, was a mistake. You know this Alex.” For an robotic alien Astra had such expressive eyes.

Of course Alex knew it.

But it had been her mistake to make.

Astra had come close and when Alex tried to step away she'd carefully taken Alex’s good hand in hers and held it up to her lips. Then her knuckles had grazed Alex’s cheek and she’d leaned in and kissed her and Alex’s eyes had drifted close. Like contact was enough to wipe away all the wrong.

When she opened them Astra was gone, Kara was still pissed, and Alex was still banged up and alone.

***

She mixed things up a bit. Ordered a cocktail. It had orange juice in it.

The bartender asked if she wanted a side of water and she shot him a finger gun.

***

After Kara knocked Kalibak up and down the eastern seaboard Alex had sat on the floor outside her apartment door and waited.

And waited.

And waited.

Kara came home through the window as the sun was peeking up over the horizon and immediately opened the door for Alex.

“That can’t be a comfortable way to sleep.”

“I was waiting on you. I called.”

“I know.”

“I was worried.”

“I’m fine.”

And Kara looked fine. She even smiled. A warm and shy one she only got when she was thinking about a guy or a girl she liked.

Alex squared her jaw. “Where were you?”

“I was out Alex, where were you? Looking for other long lost relatives of mine to bang?”

“That isn’t fair.”

“Look,” Kara squared her shoulders. In her Supergirl costume it made her look impossibly impressive. “I don’t want to fight, but I’m still kind of mad at you, and I need time.”

Alex took a step towards her sister. “You almost died yesterday, and do we—do you even know what that guy was?” Besides terrifying and powerful enough to almost murder Superman on live television.

“Yeah. I do.” There was a lot of finality in that sentence, and no offer to elaborate.

Alex tilted her head, “Did you tell anyone?”

“Yeah. I did.”

When Alex’s dad died (or when she thought he died) their family unit fell apart a little.

Her mom had always been a kind mom, but she’d been frigid compared to the other kids’ moms. She didn’t hug Alex so tight she felt it in her bones, and she could count on one hand the number of time she’d crawled into bed with her.

She got worse when Alex lost her dad. More distant. More aloof. Never angry or mean. Just robotic.

And she worked. A lot. Her days and nights were spent at the lab and Alex’s days and nights were spent teaching her new sister how to make macaroni and cheese and guess the puzzles on Wheel of Fortune.

It was her grandmother who gave her a big hug and held her close and told her, “Your mom’s hurting, sweetheart. Same as all of us.”

Alex had pointed out that she could help. She once rehabilitated a shellshocked alien refugee and had developed some pretty dang amazing comfort skills.

“I know you could, but we all pick our own support system Alex. Your mom’s got hers.”

And it wasn’t Alex.

And now Kara had her support system—her people she could talk to after beating an alien on live television.

And it wasn’t Alex.

***

She ordered another drink.

***

She only woke up when someone kicked her foot. Hard enough that it stung.

She stirred and peeked out from behind crusty eyelids. But the cigarette smoke should have told her enough. Bruno's brand.

He squatted down beside her. "You look like shit." Long plume of smoke in her face. "Fight with your girl?"

Lucy. Alex had been avoiding her calls since Lucy had dropped her off after the fight with the rock alien. Because there were too many chances with Lucy. Too many moments of pretend dressed up like something real. If Astra was a mistake than Lucy was a disaster.

"Girl is fine."

"You sure as shit aren't."

He reached for her, thick hands pinching as they went under her arms. "Come on."

She pushed him back, hard enough that he lost his balance and fell.

His loud "fuck," was met with Alex's own insistence that she was fine. Again.

Bruno, sprawled out in front of Alex, hair in his eyes, nodded. He flipped his cigarette from one corner of his mouth to the other. "You're not gonna let me help you?"

She glared. It was as emphatic a no as she could muster.

He nodded again. Looked like he was going to walk away.

Then he threw himself at Alex and punched her so hard in the nose she saw stars. Her head cracked into the brick and something warm dripped down her face.

She was too busy cursing Bruno to stop him from picking her up and ushering her out to the curb.

"Hang onto me and stop bleeding will you?" He kept one arm tight around her waist and flagged a cab down with the other.

They fell into the backseat. It smelled like gasoline and exhaust.

"Shit. Hey idiot, where the hell do you live? I don't even fucking know."

Alex mumbled something she couldn't really focus on enough to remember.

Then she fell asleep.

When she woke up again it was outside of a nice looking complex and Lucy, wrapped up in a light jacket and clearly wearing her pajamas, was huddled against the night and peering into the window of the cab.

"Good thing your girl answers her phone," Bruno muttered.

He chatted all the way up to wherever they were going. Nice and congenial. Teasing Alex and being friendly with Lucy.

"Which way to the bedroom?"

"That's--"

He ignored Lucy and kicked a door open.

Then Alex was introduced to a very stiff mattress.

There was more mumbling and Alex would have tried to pay attention, but she was busy trying to kick her jeans and boots off.

Strong hands caught one flailing foot and Alex peered down to find Lucy carefully unlacing her boot.

"You better be glad he was drunk and I don't keep pictures of my family around."

"You don't?"

Lucy dropped her bare foot. "How much did you drink?"

Alex turned away, grabbing a pillow and hugging it to her face.

Distantly she was aware of how silly it was that she pouted while Lucy mechanically undressed her. Then she knelt down in Alex's line of sight. "Is this about Kara or Astra?"

It was about a lot of things. Things Alex wasn't so great at putting into words. Things she kept buried deep.

The tiniest frown worried Lucy's brow. She started to stand and Alex caught her wrist to keep her in place. She reached out, her hand remarkably stable, to stroke the frown away. Thumb pressed gently to her frown. It moved carefully along her brow. Down her nose.

Over lips softer than silk.

Lucy Lane was a problem of a woman. "The kind it could be so easy to fall for. The kind that could be such a disaster."

There was a myriad of emotions cut into the lines of Lucy's face. Shock and wonder and misery.

Alex's hand fell away and her eyes drifted close.

"I know the feeling," she heard Lucy mumble.

***

She wasn't wearing pants and her nose was throbbing like there was a tiny Kryptonian in there beating the cartilage with a hammer.

Alex tried to get up, but ended up just doing a really bad approximation of Child's Pose in an unfamiliar bed.

"That's a good look for you."

She parted her legs enough to look between them. Lucy, arms crossed, was watching her with emotions Alex was too hungover to quantify.

"Where am I?"

"My bedroom." She nodded down at Alex. "You're washing my sheets."

"Your--" she flopped over and peaked at Lucy from through her hair. "Your bedroom?" Oh god. "We didn't?"

"I wouldn't."

Ouch.

"And neither would you," Lucy said evenly.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Lucy shook her head. Took a seat on the edge of the bed. "You know J'onn kept a record of your recruitment?"

He-- "that sounds about right."

"I always thought the part about you being a borderline alcoholic binge drinker was bullshit."

"It's only alcoholism if it's a habit."

Lucy blinked. A stony silence yawned between them. Abruptly she turned away. "You have company."

The way whoever it was made no sound as they passed Lucy by had Alex thinking of Kara.

She'd always been terrible about making noise when she walked. Had terrified Alex (often gleefully) on more that one occasion because of it.

But it was Astra, in another number culled from a previous decade. She looked...concerned. "You reek of alcohol."

"Shouldn't you be off following Kara around and asking her if she forgiven you yet?"

"Kara and I are mending our relationship."

"Well aware. Thanks. What are you even doing here?”

"Your colleague called me."

"She shouldn't have."

Stiff as the mattress was, the bed didn't even shift when Astra joined her on it. "What hit you this time?" She motioned to Alex's nose.

"Bruno Manheim's fist."

"The man you are investigating."

"This was actually a show of friendship, if you can believe it."

"I will never understand humans' displays of affection."

"Punching's not a normal one for us."

"But slapping is. On the bottom. And pinching. And ogling."

Alex raised an eyebrow. "That sounds less like affection and more like harassment."

"And kissing. We didn't kiss on Krypton."

"You don’t?”

Alex knew for a fact that was a lie. Kara and her used to stay up way too late talking about Kryptonian sex versus human. It always got them so giggly that her mom would come in and tell them to go to bed already.

"No." Astra tilted her head. "But you humans insist on it."

"We do?"

"Yes. All the time--"She kissed Alex so swiftly that Alex froze at first. Unprepared for the very pleasant sensation.

Then her hand slipped into the thick tangle of Astra's hair. "You're pretty good at it," she murmured against Astra's mouth.

"I have a lot of affection to display."

"That a fact?"

"I was stupid to leave you."

"Very." She pulled away, holding Astra back when she tried to follow. “What about Kara?” Her voice was thick in her throat.

“My niece does not govern me.”

“She’ll be mad. She is mad.”

Astra gave her another quick kiss. “So we will make her see reason.”

***

When Alex called out a soft thanks Lucy leapt a good three feet into the air.

"I scare you?"

"No." Then Lucy busied herself pouring more coffee. "You and your girlfriend all made up?"

"We are.” She hooked a thumb towards the bedroom. “She just went out your window. Had a class to teach.”

“Is it just me or are Kryptonians amazing at the whole “settling in” thing?”

“She and Kara do seem to have a knack for it.” She took a seat on a stool at the counter. “Thanks for playing matchmaker."

Lucy shrugged. "It and whatever was happening with Supergirl was affecting your work. And only one of them returned my calls."

“You didn’t have to make them.”

Lucy said nothing.

"Kara's avoiding you?"

"Not officially. But the only one she's ever seen with are James and Winn. And--"

"Cat." Alex tried not to let any sourness show in the mention of the woman.

It didn’t work. ”You don't like her,” Lucy stated.

"You do?"

She shrugged. Handed Alex a cup of coffee. ”I respect her, and all the garbage she and Lois toss back and forth she was still at Lois's wedding. Not that she actually remembered seeing me there or anything. I think the two of them even talk pretty regularly. For people like them.”

"No offense, but your sister is almost as bad as Cat."

"Oh that would be the Pulitzer’s fault.”

"James has one too--"

"And he's just as bad on the whole 'I know what's best' front. They get one award praising their talent and--" She made a finger gun and followed it with a light "pow."

"At least James only has the one."

"And all but one of Cat's are for her paper--not herself. Lois has two Pulitzers. Just for writing."

“How often does she bring them up at Thanksgiving?”

“That would require her agreeing to show up for Thanksgiving. She and my dad aren’t—“

“Right. His whole hatred of aliens thing.”

“And he doesn’t even know she’s married to one.” She looked pleased with herself as she sipped her coffee.

Alex watched the bubbles disappear in her own mug. “When did you know?”

“About two minutes after Kara told me she was one. Everything with Clark just kind of clicked.”

“Have you and your sister—“

“Don’t Ask Don’t Tell was crap in the army but is fantastic in your home life.”

Alex was tempted to make a joke about it only being so great in one’s home life, as in her experience letting lies sit on the surface just made them explode bigger later.

But instead she gulped down her coffee.

“You want to point me towards your fresh sheets and I can, you know…”

Lucy blinked blankly before starting. “Right. In here.” She went to a closet between her kitchen and her bedroom and produced the sheets, neatly folded with military precision.

Even the fitted sheet.

Alex’s fingers brushed Lucy’s when she took them from her. A quick graze that was not, even remotely, notable. They’d touched plenty of times, accidentally, and purposely, and even intimately.

But when someone’s fist pounded on Lucy’s apartment door the two of them still sprung apart as if each other’s touch was scalding.

And Alex was left with the sheets clinched in her white knuckled grip, confusion suddenly beating in her head alongside a fierce hangover and the general ache of being punched in the face the night before.

It was Bruno at the door, a box of donuts held in front of him like a shield.

“Our little bruiser awake,” Alex heard him asking.

Lucy stuttered on an answer so Alex stepped out, sheets still in hand. “Doing some domestic work. Everything okay Bruno?”

“Better for me than you. How’s the nose?”

Alex shrugged.

“Brought the donuts for your girl. How about you put your boots on and we go for a ride?”

Lucy looked between them, stupid box of donuts clutched in her hands. And Alex tightened her grip on the sheets she was holding. Tried to keep back the shiver of nerves wanting to race through her.

“Hurry up,” Bruno said with a convivial smile. “Won’t take us long.”

“Let me just…get my shoes on.”

Lucy didn’t follow her back into the bedroom, which was either the best or the worst thing. She was too nauseous with sudden fear to be sure of which.

There were plenty of reasons to go for a ride with noted Intergang leader Bruno Mannheim. Maybe he was just worried and checking up on her, or maybe he was ready to put her back to work. Or maybe she’d said something in a stupor the night before and he was going to murder her.

She was probably going to die.

The knowledge—as sure as her love for her sister—slammed into her like a ton of bricks.

Bruno Mannheim was about to kill her and had brought her future widow freaking donuts.

She immediately threw up in the trashcan by Lucy’s bed.

“Hey honey,” Lucy called from the other room. “Don’t forget your phone. I stuck it in the top drawer of the dresser.”

Her phone was, in fact, in the pocket of her jacket.

But she opened the drawer anyways, and found a very small gun, key still in the trigger lock.

She quickly removed it and checked the magazine. Loaded.

Of course Lucy Lane kept a loaded gun in a drawer of really nice looking underwear. Who wouldn’t!

She shoved the gun in her pocket, next to her half-dead phone, and took a deep breath that tasted like coffee and bile.

Lucy caught her hand on her way out, pulled her in for a kiss that Alex put too much into. She ignored Bruno muttering about PDA to wallow in the comfort of Lucy’s touch.

“See you later,” Alex said with a wan smile.

Lucy was wide-eyed and serious. Her lips pressed wet to Alex’s cheek. “Don’t be gone long. Those sheets won’t change themselves.”

***

Bruno didn’t try to kill her.

They went out for a late, greasy breakfast and recounted the night before, each from their own blurry memory.

“Never seen you that blitzed,” Bruno told her, and Alex could just shrug again, because once upon a time she’d binged like that all the time, stopping only to go to class or crank out work on her doctorate.

“But you and your girl seemed real friendly this morning.”

“We made up.”

“You’re still wearing what you had on last night.” He said it casually. Knife slicing through a piece of ham.

Her bite of egg slithered off her fork. “We chatted. Its what girls do.”

“You chatted last night too.”

She stabbed at it again. It broke up against the tine of her fork, forcing her to scoop instead. “Did I?”

“About Supergirl and that fight in Metropolis.”

It was unpleasantly cold when it touched her tongue. But she swallowed it down. “I don’t remember much of what I said.”

“Mainly you were pissed because you don’t know who the big ape dude is. And you called her an entitled brat.”

Oh. Cool. She ducked her head and scooped up more eggs. “That sounds sort of right.”

“Not a lot of people are comfortable talking ‘bout heroes that way. At least the big ones that do all the world saving.”

“I was about to say, pretty sure everyone trash talks Batman.”

“Batman trash talk is a god damn sport in Gotham. But Superman? Supergirl? They save the world from aliens and magic and all kinds of other garbage.”

“They’re power unchecked. Isn’t that what people like Lord and Luthor say?”

Bruno smiled into his mug of coffee. “Yeah, that is what they say. What do you think?”

It didn’t matter what Alex really thought. It only mattered what Bruno needed to hear. So she smirked. “I think the checks require a lot of balances.”

After breakfast they took the elevator all the way up to the top of the hotel.

The penthouse suite.

Bruno’s suite.

The heart and soul of Intergang in National City.

Alex had to admit, she’d always figured getting access to the inner sanctum would require more than a drunken rant about her sister and a punch to the nose.

“I know you’ve been wondering about what you’ve been delivering, and I figured, shitty as your last couple of days had been, you deserved a little treat.”

“Breakfast wasn’t enough?”

Bruno grinned. “Not by a long shot.”

He tossed her a glove.

Or really a gauntlet. It dwarfed her and weighed as much as her full operation kit and gun. Thirty pounds easy.

She grunted under the weight.

“What—“

“Little something my supplier came up with.” He put on the other gauntlet and immediately a sickly yellow light emerged. “Thought,” he pointed at his head. “Meet reality.”

He splayed his fingers out and the light danced off the tips of the gauntlet. Swirled around each other.

Became a solid form of light identical to the gauntlet, only as big as Bruno himself.

“Bruno—“

He was still grinning, floppy dark hair in his eyes. “Right? Checks. I got your balances right here.”

Alex carefully put the other gauntlet on. She had to use her bad hand to pull it over her fingers, which sent a dull ache up her arm.

The gauntlet seemed to tighten itself around her forearm, like a giant blood pressure cuff. Then the light emerged and when Alex balled up her fist the glowing hand did the same.

“What…we’re just going to attack Supergirl with these?”

Kara would be irritated by them, maybe, but Alex couldn’t see them doing much damage overall.

“No, what we’re going to do is rob the National City Federal Reserve.”

“That’s insane.”

“It was insane until this latest gear showed up. Now I got a gun that dissolves walls over there, a car outside that can fly, and this pair of gloves that make my every thought reality. I’m a player Alex, just as dangerous as Supergirl or her cousin or even that weird monkey man that attacked ‘em. And it’s time to remind this city of that.”

She flexed her fingers in the gauntlet. The giant light version of them whooshed like a lightsaber with the motion.

“Oh.”

***

When your boss was a megalomaniac out to prove his strength with alien tech there wasn't a lot of time to plan the bank heist he'd announced.

Alex tried--while also avoiding six separate phone calls and four texts from Kara.

Everyone put on all black. Very tactical black. Plenty of pockets and Velcro strips for slapping on even more pockets.

But instead of the helmets and night vision kits Alex would have worn with at the DEO the Intergang crew wore baklavas and goggles.

So besides the nerves that were bound to hit any woman robbing a Federal Reserve bank with a bunch of over-weaponed idiots there was all the general sweaty discomfort.

Flying around in what she could only describe as a hover convertible with wings made it worse.

Living with an alien? Alex could handle. Sleeping with one. She was on it.

But hover cars and giant glowy fist gauntlets were dangerously bordering on a world of scifi she much preferred existing in books and movies only.

"It's amazing right," Bruno shouted over the wind.

"Yeah," Alex shouted back, and she tried to make her voice sound bright.

"Bet we could even outrun Superman in this thing!"

That was not a hypothesis Alex wanted to test.

"Where'd it even come from!"

"I got a guy!"

"Like those ones that did all the mind-control?"

"Different guy!"

It would be a lot easier if Bruno would have just told her how different. Was it some alien inventor from Fort Rozz? They'd combed the records when rumors first started flying, but nothing had come up.

Or was it some new set of aliens? Attracted to National City because of its own extraterrestrial protector and recent experience with invasion.

"Guy even human," she asked.

Bruno laughed. "You worry too much!"

Bruno had his right hand guy, Vincent, on the gun that dissolved whatever it aimed at. Like the rest of them he seemed completely unperturbed the the potentially alien origin of his new toys. Just pointed the gun at the side of the reserve and an enormous, perfectly cut, hole appeared.

Then Vincent made three more cuts and they were inside.

Alarms screamed in Alex's ears and guards shouted and drew guns, probably alarmed by the hover car serenely floating through a building.

And she couldn't see Bruno's face, but she could hear his glee as he slapped the guards aside with one of the gauntlets. Bones cracked.

"How about you help with the loot," Alex said above the din. "I'll deal with the guards!"

Bruno turned to use his glove to move money.

And Alex used hers to try and stop anyone from getting killed.

But humans were fragile (she had that on good authority) and the gauntlet's power was considerable.

She, briefly, understood what it was like to be Kara day in and day out. Hard steel in a world of porcelain.

She was smashed a guard against the wall in the hopes that having the wind knocked out of him would scare him into backing down, when the other guards cheered and the gun fire stopped.

She turned slowly, already fully aware of who was going to be staring back at her.

Giant bank suddenly attacked by a hovering car full of glowing fists?

Supergirl was going to be there in a heartbeat.

Having never been on the other end of one of Kara's Supergirl glares Alex felt her blood chill. A little.

Then she realized that while the frown was all Supergirl, the glare was Kara. She had that little line between her brows she always got when she was using her X-Ray vision.

Then the shock registered.

And before Kara could say Alex's name in surprise Alex growled, "This isn't personal" and sucker punched her own sister.

It was way more satisfying than it should have been.

Growing up she and Kara hadn't fought a lot. They'd been snippy with each other. Said hurtful things. But by the time Kara entered Alex's life they were both past the age of rough housing. And even if they hadn't been--Kara was invulnerable.

Kind of an uneven playing field.

The only time they'd been even since, they'd either been training or Alex was a brainwashed zombie person.

Not really the time to take the opportunity of enjoying thumping your sister.

And Kara deserved a thump for cutting her out and taking up with Cat Grant.

Though Alex learned that when you flicked a floating Kryptonian with a giant glowing finger made of light they could clear four skyscrapers and set off distant car alarms with their crash landing.

...

Shit.

***

Astra and Lucy were waiting for Alex when she got home. Astra looked concerned, but Lucy just looked stony.

And Alex...

Alex had celebrated with her boys after pulling off what was going to be the heist of the century.

To keep up appearances.

If anything Lucy looked even stonier when Astra noted "You've been drinking."

"For work."

"You robbed a bank," Lucy said.

"For work."

"People almost died."

"And I saved them."

"Was that you flicking Kara across National City like a booger?"

"Bruno was itching for a fight after Metropolis. I had to."

"You didn't--"

"You asked me to go undercover Lucy. You asked me to pretend to be their friends. So yeah, anything I did tonight I had to."

"You're undercover?"

Kara sounded very small. Not like her titanic super sister. But like the scared and shy girl who hid under the table because of the popcorn machine.

Lucy started towards Kara, who was standing in the door in her civilian clothes, glasses dangerously low on her nose.

Astra stood a little taller. Like she was bracing for a fight.

Alex sighed. "Someone has been supplying Intergang with alien tech. I've been investigating."

Kara nodded. Slowly. "So your job..."

"Was never in jeopardy," Lucy said softly. "Kara we--"

"You lied." Kara's voice was flat.

"For--"

"Don't say for my own good Alex. You always say that."

"Because it's true."

Kara shook her head. "The only fact I really know? Is that you've got a martyr complex bigger than Metropolis."

"I wasn't the one trying to kill herself flying Myriad off the planet."

"I--"

She dropped her hands onto her hips. "Didn't have a choice. See? Irritating isn't it?"

"You're doing this because you're jealous."

"That-" Was a low blow Alex was sure they'd both moved past.

"Is the truth. You can't protect me the way you want to because you don't have superpowers. So instead you jump on every grenade lobbed our way. Right?"

"Hey. Don't make this like I'm the martyr Kara. I didn't try to get carried off into 'Rao's light' like some people in this room."

Kara crossed her arms. It made her shoulders look broader than Alex was used to. "No, you've just rejected any and all semblance of a life outside of your sister."

"When are you going to stop thinking every little thing I do is revolved around you Kara?"

"When every little thing you do doesn't revolve around me! You got the DEO job because you were my sister. You took it to protect me. I mean come on Alex. You can't even date without making it about me."

Alex had the urge, again, to punch her sister. If one hand wasn't healing she might have risked breaking the other just for the satisfaction.

"That's enough," Astra said. "Both of you."

Kara, who was handily the most patient person Alex had ever met, huffed. "Right. Of course." She shook her head and went to the window. "What I was going to tell you at some point before you robbed a Federal Reserve and then flicked me into a parking garage, was that I have to go out of town for a few days with Ms. Grant, because she can't keep an assistant longer than about two hours."

"Back to Ms. Grant? Shouldn't she let you call her Cat by now?"

Kara glared over her shoulder. "We'll talk when I get back. Maybe your head will be out of your ass by then."

"Better than between Cat Grant's legs."

Kara scowled and flew away with a whoosh that purposely rattled the picture frames on the wall.

Lucy ducked her head--like she was ashamed by proxy. Then picked her purse up from where she'd dropped it by the couch. "We'll debrief tomorrow then," she said, refusing to make eye contact with Alex.

"I can go tonight."

"And yet I can't," she said. Still refusing to look at Alex Lucy instead shouldered past her. "Try and sober up."

"Lucy..."

But she was just met with a slammed door.

Then it was her and Astra and she wasn't sure what to say. Kara had been a black hole at the center of whatever they were. A constant they were both painfully aware of, but one too dangerous to approach.

Now Kara was just there between them.

Alex had pitted Kara and Astra against one another, just by being a raging asshole. And she wasn't exactly sure how to go forward.

She probably needed to apologize. Or send Astra away. Reject her so that at least Kara wouldn't stay mad at both of them.

Astra's arms wrapped around her. Tight enough it was almost hard to breathe. Her lips pressed to Alex's forehead and one hand slipped into Alex's hair.

When Alex broke down--as she'd been threatening to do ever since she and Kara started fighting--Astra didn't offer platitudes or plans.

She just held her.


	10. Chapter 10

Kara somehow got more bumbling the deeper into the airport they went. She was juggling Cat's carry-on, her carry-on, a bag of over-priced snack foods she'd purchased as soon as they were through security, and a backpack she was presumably counting as her "personal item", and instead of lashing them all together she had one bulky suitcase under each arm and kept constantly juggling them and tripping over them as she struggled to keep up with Cat.

Once upon a time Cat might have taken pity on her. Or had a sharp comment that would have been a little cruel, but also a little helpful.

Today she was determined to torture her former "assistant," so she ignored her stuttering bumbling act and kept her eyes forward.

Cat was on a mission and no amount of acting on Kara's part was going to deter her.

She was, hell or high water, going to prove that Kara Danvers was Supergirl.

The original plan had involved threatening to toss herself off her balcony.

Then she remembered the time Kara-- _Supergirl_ threw her off the same balcony.

So she thought about tossing Kara off the balcony.

But publicly revealing your former assistant as the Maid of Steel by attempted murder was probably not a good thing for CatCo's stock.

Which also killed the option where she shot Kara or pushed her in front of a speeding car.

No, the only way to get Kara to admit she was Supergirl wasn't via some big flashy move. It was to catch her in a lie. Draw the truth out.

Which meant traveling to a tiny landlocked South American country and putting her in a room with a crackpot who claimed to know how to kill a Kryptonian.

In the annals of history Cat Grant would be remembered as a _genius_.

***

Kara was nervous as they waited to board. Cat answered emails and texts on her phone and refused to look in Kara's direction or acknowledge the way she nervously cracked peanuts between her teeth and bounced her knee.

Eventually others noticed and while Cat never looked up from her phone's screen she did see the way they all stared.

"Don't fly often," she asked, now focused on a game of Threes.

"Not without knowing the pilot."

Cat froze and slowly turned to stare at Kara. Had she just...did Kara just make a _joke_? About being _Supergirl_?

"My sister and foster mother are both licensed pilots." She certainly had _that_ lie locked and loaded.

"Hm, for a moment I thought that was a confession."

Kara laughed. It was the nerdy chuckle meant to deflect attention.

Cat rolled her eyes and returned to her game. "I assure you, even commercial, our pilots will be fine."

"Tell that to JFK Junior or John Denver.”

"Wonderful, I'm traveling with an aficionado of plane crashes."

"They're piloting a few tons of steel and fiberglass Ms. Grant. Powered by jet engines. There is _no_ secondary safety measure beyond a prayer and hope that a superhero is nearby."

"You've given this far too much thought."

"My sister was on flight 237.”

"Then a _little_ fear is perhaps appropriate. But you'll be fine Kara. Planes are safer than cars."

"Not a fan of those either," she grumbled.

Apparently Supergirl had control issues.

***

"Kara!"

Cat's harsh whisper had Kara jumping a good foot in the air. She quickly rearranged her glasses and pulled out her headphones. "Ms. Grant?"

The plane was swaying, or maybe it was Cat. She wasn't completely sure. She'd been kicking drinks back as soon as she'd boarded. Even toasted Kara when she slunk by, on her way to coach.

"I need--" there was a pocket of turbulence and she lurched into Kara's seat, bracing herself on the headrest. Kara, in an effort not to smack face first into Cat, pressed herself back into the cushion.

Generally speaking, people trying to merge with solid objects to escape her close proximity was a good thing. Cat aspired to that level of fear from every single person she met--including two presidents.

But not from the woman who'd writhed under her mouth and cried her name.

She leaned in closer. Peered.

Kara's nostrils flared. "How much have you had to--"

"I need to know how you're handling the flight."

Kara blinked. Her eyes really were very blue. Very _alien_ so close.

She whispered, "T--the flight?"

"You were nervous."

"I--I'm fine. Just--" she squeezed her armrest for illustration.

Which was just more proof of who she was. Those fingers were unforgettable. The way they’d had slipped into Cat's mouth as she'd ridden Cat's hand? Did Kara really, _honestly_ , think Cat would be too stupid to notice?

Cat straightened back up, tugging on the hem of her blazer. "Good. Get some rest."

She went back to first class, swaying with the plane.

She thought she might have heard someone insult her. Maybe Kara's seat mate. But she distinctly heard Kara too. Defending her.

***

They were checked into the hotel by six in the evening. The next flight wasn't until the morning, and after Cat spent an hour and a half trying to use a three megabits internet connection shared amongst the two hundred-plus guests of the hotel, she gave up and traipsed down to Kara's room,

Kara answered immediately after Cat's second sharp knock. Her hair was wet from, presumably, a shower and she had on no makeup. With the glasses low on her nose she looked irritatingly young and innocent.

And nothing like Supergirl.

Or even Kara Danvers for that matter.

"Ms. Grant?"

It was the tilt of her head. The lilt of her voice. Cat suddenly felt like an invader.

"I was going to go have dinner. Would--" she caught herself. Cat Grant did not _ask_ her assistant. "You should be downstairs in ten minutes."

Kara's mouth opened and then shut. "Of course. I made a list of restaurants. Do you want me to get a table?”

"Just be downstairs. Ten minutes."

***

Cat was a workaholic. She could admit it. And not the adorable kind everyone cooed over. Cat was the kind that destroyed relationships--families--with her driving need to succeed.

But she still loved to travel. The last three seasons of her show were all shot remote, just to sate the desire.

And the best part--the bit that became more difficult the more famous she became--was when she got lost.

She'd pick one night of her trip and just sink into a city. Let the smells and voices and movement of a new world carry her like a wave.

She changed into light linen pants and sleeveless shirt and was careful not to put on too much make up--in the heat it would melt away anyways. Or too much jewelry. That would make her a target. Just her phone, cash, and her hotel key.

She ordered a drink while she waited for Kara.

The bartender’s English was flawless and he chuckled at her Mexican accent when she spoke Spanish.

When Kara arrived, and said hello to the bartender, her own accent sounded perfectly Argentinian.

"I had no idea you'd been to Argentina before," Cat said when they were outside.

Kara pushed her glasses up her nose. "I'm good with languages."

"You should have put that on your resume."

Kara shrugged. "Ms. Grant where are we going?"

Cat dropped her hands into her pockets and shrugged. "Where would you like to go?"

"There’s a Michelin star restaurant we could try. I know you prefer two stars, and they might give us a hard time without a reservation but--"

Cat walked in what was decidedly the opposite direction, and Kara huffed and chased after her.

Down cobbled streets and past loud bars and bustling markets.

They settled on a sandwich stall with a twenty minute wait. Cat ordered half the menu and Kara the other half and then they say under twinkly lights and ate until Cat was sure the button on her pants was going to fly off and take out some poor pedestrian’s eye.

The conversation was easy, and Kara soon relaxed. Shifted into someone who was equal measures charm and awkward. A dork really. A funny dork who glanced at Cat when she thought she wasn't looking and smiled.

It would have been a perfect date. One to add to the list Supergirl had built.

But this was, technically, Kara Danvers sitting opposite her. Not her girlfriend.

Cat was careful not to flirt to heavily—she didn’t need a lawsuit if, for some reason, she was wrong. She backed down when Kara would blush and duck her head and fidget with her glasses.

Then they wandered again. Cat kept her hands firmly in her pockets, but Kara swung her own hands wide with each step.

The northern part of Argentina reminded Cat of Spain. Same architecture and temperate climate. She’d been to Spain many times, but apparently Kara had not. She’d pause at each new building or cathedral, eyes wide as she took it all in.

“Spanish architecture back home isn’t as picturesque is it,” Cat asked. She desperately wanted to brush one shoulder against Kara’s and smile.

“No,” Kara said, eyes still on the cathedral before them.

“My favorite cathedral is still in Seville, personally. The tower is so tall that they built a ramp instead of stairs up it.” Her fingers walked through the air. “So people could just take a donkey to the top.”

“Guess it was before escalators.”

“First time I climbed it was straight out of college. The altitude was higher than I was used to in Metropolis. I distinctly remember thinking that was what a heart attack was like.”

“You almost died?”

“Tell anyone and I’ll have you fired.”

Kara called her bluff with nothing more than a grin.

"Do you travel?" Cat wasn’t sure who she was asking her question of: the girl walking beside her with her lip caught between her teeth, or that creature just beneath her skin, who like to come to Cat in the dead of night.

Kara looked skyward, eyes on stars hidden by the streetlamps. "I used to. As a kid. Not so much now."

"Not even with the--the foster mother?”

A crooked grin. "Eliza put us on this mission when I was fifteen to see the country. Every summer and spring break we'd go to another national park. The Grand Canyon. Yellowstone."

"How long did that last?"

Kara laughed. "College surprisingly enough. My _very_ hungover sister got in the wrong car at a rest stop and started cleaning it. Eliza was--"

"Displeased."

She shrugged.

"You don't talk about them much. Your sister and mother."

"Foster mother. And I do. Just--"

"Not with me."

Kara nodded.

Cat refused to be annoyed. ”Is your sister much older?"

"Two years."

"And some kind of--"

"Scientist. Like Eliza and my foster dad was."

"You're the odd woman out."

"I like science too. It's just..." Kara was looking up at the sky again, neck long and exposed in the moonlight. "My father—not my foster father—was a scientist too. Trying to save the world."

It was that dreamlike tone. The same one Supergirl got when speaking of Krypton.

Cat caught Kara's hand and pulled her closer. Her fingers itched.

"Sorry," Cat said.

Kara glanced up, over the edge of her glasses. Eyes blue as a mountain sky. Searching Cat's. A small frown blemishing a smooth brow.

She squeezed Kara's hand again, and wordlessly dragged her along.

They bought wine and fresh fruit and settled on a bench beneath a statue of some great conqueror or another. Kara had juice on her lips and Cat had the urge to lick it away and at one point she caught Kara sucking on a bit of a peach and staring at her with a gaze so heated she had to cross her legs.

They walked back to the hotel and Kara's hand brushed against Cat's. Words—all the conversation—died down. She wondered if Kara could hear her heart racing in her chest.

Their rooms were on the same floor, Kara's before Cat's and when Kara pressed her back against the door and thanked Cat for dinner she was possessed with the desire to kiss her.

She leaned and Kara didn't move. No gasp. No feigned alarm. Nothing to say she wanted it or didn't.

Cat swallowed.

"Good night," she said, her voice harsh even in her own ears.

Only then did Kara’s eyes flash to Cat’s lips. Her tongue darted out to wet her own. “Night.”

God what Cat would do for just a little honesty. Some truth to come between them so her hand could fall to Kara’s waist and she could kiss the column of her neck and and revel in her throaty cries.

“I’ll see you in the morning,” she said.

***

The flight was uneventful apart from Kara's nerves. It was a puddle jumper, and they were wedged in together, any heavy breathing lost in the noise of the plane engines.

Kara kept eyeing Cat, like she was shocked by the sensible khaki and olive green ensemble Cat had chosen.

Cat, meanwhile, was appalled by Kara's choice of jeans and trainers and button down shirt.

But despite the denim Kara didn't break out into a sweat in the un-air conditioned plane or when they got out and picked up the Jeep they would have to drive across the border.

Nueva Malaga was anything but. A tiny fiefdom carved out of a valley surround by mountains. The dictator was maybe the last CIA regime still running so strong--the "president" having been in power since the sixties. He was old and decrepit now, but his grip on the country was iron clad. And he was harboring a scientist, Simon Tycho, who declared himself the foremost expert on Kryptonians.

Lois and Clark had reportedly interviewed Tycho six years ago, and declared him a crackpot.

But Cat knew better. Because the professor's most significant claim was that he knew of a substance that could _hurt_ Kryptonians.

She suspected Lois and Clark hadn't spiked the story because he was a crackpot, but because if people believed him they’d know Superman's weakness.

And Supergirl's too.

After his latest claim to actually _possessing_ the substance, Cat knew she had to meet him.

See if he was telling the truth.

And bury him alive if he was right.

Forcing Kara to reveal her secret would just be an excellent bonus--at least as far as their personal relationship was concerned.

She didn't tell Kara that as they drove through small towns that electricity hadn't seen in a generation.

Just about the Kryptonite.

"It's our duty to protect Supergirl and her cousin.”

Kara watched her silently, rocked only by the motion of the Jeep.

"That's unethical."

"Oh please. I'm not a truths at all cost journalist Kara. I _shape_ the news."

"You don't find that a little power crazy?"

"Every major newspaper had buried a story for security reasons. Why on earth should me burying a Super-poison be any different?"

"Journalism isn't about narrative, Cat. It's about truth."

She let the use of her first name slide. If Kara really was Supergirl, it was only fair. "Here is a little secret of journalism Kara. Only the very rich, the very brave, and the very foolhardy can afford truth above all else. The rest of us operate in a world of grey. Burying Peter's truths, to shine a light on Paul's. One day you'll figure that out too." The Jeep hit a pothole and Cat's teeth rattled. "Some truths are best left unknown."

***

Kara hung back by the Jeep when they arrived at the Tycho’s dig site. Cat had her phone out and ready to record and had to turn back around to huff at her former assistant.

"What on earth are you doing?"

"Watching the Jeep...in case...of thieves?"

Cat's steely glare righted Kara's bone-headed thought process, and she shuffled to keep pace with Cat.

She’d begun to sweat.

The doctor greeted them at the elevator to the dig site floor. He looked like any other pasty white academic stuck in the jungle, apart from the large gun on his hip.

There was a cacophony of machinery and multiple languages all around them. Enough to drown out his first greeting.

"I SAID ITS A PLEASURE TO MEET YOU MS. GRANT. MY MOTHER LOVED YOUR SHOW."

Yes. Well.

"Do you have a place that's a little more quiet," she asked, refusing to raise her voice as much.

He blinked, processing her question, then nodded and motioned them both to a very expensive looking RV parked by the elevator.

Kara sagged into one of the chairs as soon as they were inside and blotted sweat from her face with a tissue before rolling up her sleeves.

"It's the humidity," the doctor said. "It can be hard to get used to." He handed Kara a water bottle, which she immediately took large gulps from, before grimacing and re-situating herself in her chair.

Cat nodded at the monstrosity on Tycho’s hip. ”Why the gun?"

He patted the holster. "A lot of people are interested in what we're doing out here."

"Really? After what the Planet did to you I would think you'd have trouble getting people to believe you--let alone to fund an operation of this scale."

"People want to believe. You. President Guillermo." He smiled. "Lex Luthor."

"Taking money from a despot and a man currently in jail for trying to kill Superman don't exactly convince me, doctor."

"You don't believe me then."

"Oh, but I want to."

Tycho nodded. "Fine. Proof Ms. Grant." He produced a lockbox from a cubby over head. Carefully he placed the box on the table between Cat and himself then spun it around so the latch was facing Cat. He nodded.

Cat refused to glance at Kara for confirmation. She reached out and carefully opened the box. The rock within cast the entire room in a sickly green pallor.

It was immediately, innately, unearthly. There was a sense of unease it engendered in Cat. It was wrong. Its presence in the world, in Cat's hands, was violently _wrong_.

And Tycho’s grin, now emerald-hued, wasn’t much better. ”I call it Kryptonite.”

Cat carefully rotated it in her hands. The stone was warm to the touch and seemed to hum against her fingertips. "It's the radiation that makes it so warm," he said. “But it's not lethal to humans, at least in quantities this small. I keep it in that lead lined box just to be safe. For some reason it blocks the radiation."

The green was so lurid she was sure it would stain her hands.

"Not fatal for humans, but Kryptonians?" She saw Kara out the corner of her eye, staring at the stone as if captivated.

"Could be fatal!" He was vibrating with his glee. "As best as I can guess it's their former planet."

"But why are you digging it _out_ of the ground," Kara asked. She was pale and sweaty. Out right ill looking.

“She's right," Cat said, eyes still on the rock in her hand. "Krypton exploded forty years ago. You shouldn’t need to be digging this deep.”

“Mudslides." He said it like that was explanation enough. "Multiple ones actually. Over the course of five hundred years. They’ve added up.”

Kara snorted, “Five hundred years?”

“Is when I’ve found the earliest reports of the green fire. Falling from the sky and scorching this valley. Some Arabic astronomers report seeing it even earlier.”

“And you think that’s Krypton?”

Cat hadn’t seen Kara this irritated in months.

“I do.”

She scoffed again, and Cat was positive she was about to say something…fireable. So she interjected. “But our best guesses peg Krypton as being over two thousand light years away, and Superman has only been here less than forty. The numbers don’t add up, no matter what your records say.”

“The historical records I have don’t lie. Green stars falling from the sky. Green fire that burned hotter than any earthly flame. _That_ was Krypton, Ms. Grant. The creatures who've landed since are nothing more than--than messages in a bottle."

Kara stood but Cat just lifted her hand, praying that it would be enough to stop her. She kept her eyes on the doctor.

“Fervency is wonderful in politics, doctor. And exceptional in matters of social justice. But it has no place in science."

"Ms. Grant--"

"I think I’ve heard enough—I’m only sorry I had to waste a trip out here to know it."

She stood and turned to Kara. "Go to the car. You can drive us back."

"No," the doctor muttered. "Not again."

“I need proof, Dr. Tycho. Not ranting, promises, and the support of a couple of criminals.”

“That rock is not from our planet—“

“And where’s the proof it’s from Krypton?”

“Lex Luthor—“

“Was a genius yes. And now he’s in jail. For trying to destroy Metropolis in his quest to murder Superman. Of course he’d believe you. He’s rich enough to give money to any crackpot with a claim like yours. Now I can see why Lois Lane spiked this story.”

“Lane is—“ He shook his head. Shuddered.

Cat had struck a nerve.

“You need proof,” he asked again.

"Yes proof. Something, as a scientist, you should be aware of."

Kara's hand was suddenly on Cat's wrist. It was damp and less sure than usual. "Ms. Grant we should--"

There was a click of a snap being unlatched. "Proof," Tycho said. His gun was aimed at Cat stomach, the barrel completely, and surprisingly, steady. “I’ll give you proof."

Despite her outwardly calm exterior Cat Grant was not accustomed to having guns pointed at her, or metahumans stalking her, or magic banshees kidnapping her. Up until Supergirl had entered her life she’d live a very unadventurous one. She dealt with fashion and entertainment and gossip. Not all the violence that got Lois’s blood pumping.

But Cat was a professional, and she’d been at ground zero during that Lex Luthor attack on Metropolis. On camera and covered in dust and determined to be just as _real_ as her more distinguished colleagues.

And now she had Kara standing beside her. Bulletproof visitor from the stars. Supergirl.

So, sure, there was a gun pointed at her and she _should_ have been terrified. But she wasn’t.

She head Kara cry out and it came at the exact same moment as the gun going off. A crack and a cry.

But not fresh pain. No numbness. No shock.

No blood.

Kara was impossibly fast, stepping between Cat and the bullet.

Kara’s shoulders heaved. Shuddered.

Tycho was less impressed with Cat’s bulletproof pseudo assistant than he should have been.

“You’ve got Supergirl on speed dial right? If you want to save your assistant you’d better call her, and then watch what happens when she walks into this trailer."

Dread slowed her muscles. Made the world sluggish and bleak.

Cat’s hands grazed Kara’s sides as Kara started to fall. She pulled her back towards her and grunted under Kara’s wait.

Then she saw the uncharacteristic shock in Kara's eyes.

And the blood on her shirt.


	11. Chapter 11

Alex did not have a relationship with Clark Kent. Her sister was his cousin, and her parents had been his friends and sometimes medical support, but Alex did not have a relationship with him.

Unless you counted the obligatory head nod, or that one time she walked in on him and her mom giving Kara her first exposure to Kryptonite and her calling him a jerk.

Their circles had grown steadily closer since J'onn's outing and James's arrival in National City, and Lucy Lane's...existence.

The likelihood that they would, at some point, be required to have a conversation lasting longer than a head nod had grown exponentially.

But she was still surprised when a broad-shouldered and bespectacled Clark Kent took a seat opposite her at Noonan's.

He was unshaven and wearing a plaid shirt and slacks instead of the three piece suit she associated with faaaamous reporter Clark Kent.

"Hi," he said, somewhere between hapless and urgent.

Alex stopped stirring her coffee to stare at him. "Hi?"

"Clark Kent."

"I know who you are."

"Right." He ran his palm over his scruff and it made a very loud scratchy noise. "Sorry, we've just never--"

"I'm aware."

She carefully brought her drink to her lips with both hands and took a sip, never taking her eyes off of him.

"This death glare you have, you don't get that from your parents."

"J'onn."

"Right. How is he?"

She frowned. "What's going on?"

"I'm being conversational."

She raised an eyebrow.

He sighed. "I was looking for Kara."

"Cat Grant dragged her off on a business trip."

There was a sudden twitch in one of his eyes.

She briefly empathized with him. "You know about that too."

"I can't decide if it's Cat being a cradle robber, or Kara acting out."

"Both probably. And Kara's always liked them a little older. I mean James--"

Clark held his hand up. "Well aware. Don't need more mental images. Do you know _where_ Cat took her?"

"Why? If you're going to lecture her about that relationship don't bother. Already did it for you."

"No. It's about that thing that attacked Metropolis."

"Kalibak."

"She told you."

After Lois’s in-depth reporting _everyone_ knew about Kalibak. At least that that’s what the thing’s name was. Astra had told her the rest. About gods at war and a truce penned on a dying planet.

About Darkseid.

"I've gotten an inkling."

"Kara said we shouldn't worry. That there's a truce and this was just one side...poking the fence for weakness, but--" He huffed and the napkins on all the tables behind Alex fluttered. "This was more than that."

“So it’s about Kara and what she did. You know why she was angry right?"

He waved her off. "This isn't about Kara and how our world sees her. It's about whatever that _thing_ was that saved Kalibak. Kara’s not talking about _it_ and something's coming Alex, I can feel it."

She didn't know what to tell him, so she drank her coffee and tried to look anywhere but at him.

He leaned into her line of sight. ”Did Kara say anything more to you about it?"

“Not lately. We're having a fight."

He was bewildered. "But you're sisters."

"Sisters fight. Ask Lois and Lucy."

"She hasn't said anything?"

Alex had the sudden urge to drink. And only twin looks of disappointment from a Kara and Lucy in her head stopped her.

"Nothing."

"Well, I definitely need to talk to her then."

"Her or just a Kryptonian?”

Clark Kent looked kind of adorable when confused. Like a lost puppy.

"She and I are all that's left. The others are in the Phantom Zone."

Alex dragged her finger along the rim of her coffee. "Not...not all of them."

***

She wasn’t about to take the Man of Steel back to her apartment and let him know she was living with a Kryptonian that had nearly destroyed the planet.

Instead they took the bus to Astra’s job.

Clark, like Kara, was terrible at public transportation. He bumbled through figuring out how to pay and took up too much space. And he apologized, a lot.

“It’s okay,” she said under her breath. “You’re a big guy, you’re going to take up space.”

“I hate taking public transit.”

“So does Kara. How do you feel about cars?”

“Started driving the water truck around the farm when I was ten.”

“Kara can’t drive,” she said out the corner of her mouth. “She tries. She _wants_ to be able to drive, but it freaks her out. Same with planes and boats. She ends up driving like my grandma—who should _not_ be allowed to drive.”

Clark smiled. It was very sweet. “She can move faster than a car on her own two feet, probably has something to do with it.”

“And that time she couldn’t control her ship and wound up in the Phantom Zone for twenty-four years. That probably has something to do with it too.”

It was supposed to be a joke—technically, and maybe something a little snide to hurt a guy with bulletproof skin.

But Alex must have hurt him more than she’d meant to because he pushed his glasses up his nose and leaned on the bar over head and stared out the window.

“Sorry,” Alex said in a low voice. They were only two stops from where they needed to get off and she really didn’t need the coming meeting to be more awkward than it was already bound to be. “That was me being an asshole.”

“Well, you didn’t abandon your cousin to strangers for twelve years, did you?”

“Do you ever regret it?”

“As soon as I flew away.”

“Then why didn’t you come back? My parents love Kara, but they wouldn’t have stopped you.”

His big chest filled with air as he took a deep breath. “I had a choice between keeping her close or giving her a chance at a normal life. She never would have had that with me.”

“Or your parents? They raised one—who would have been better equipped.”

“My dad had just died, after being sick for years. My mom could barely handle the house and the bills, let alone a thirteen year old girl who’d just lost her whole world.”

Alex thought it would have made them perfect for each other, but then she wouldn’t have gotten a sister. Wouldn’t have had her world changed beyond imagining.

Clark might have regretted his decision, but Alex was so grateful for it that it hurt, deep in her chest.

"Thanks." Her voice was soft. Barely carrying over the guttural groan of the bus's diesel engine. "It would have sucked not having a sister."

Clark gave her a fond look. "I'm glad she has you too, though maybe you should start letting her take more of the punches."

She frowned on confusion and Clark motioned to her nose. Still covered in tape.

She gingerly touched it. "This? This is actually from work."

"What do you do again?"

"Bioengineer."

He hummed, his eyes suddenly too alert behind his glasses. That sharp glare of a journalist. Kara got it more and more now. James had it often.

They both knew she’d just told a lie.

She tapped the button by the window for their stop and the bus lurched to a halt.

"Your 'friend,' what does she do?"

"Teaches math. Apparently Krypton was way ahead of us."

"I still can't work most of it out, and my parents left me a whole library of it."

"Weren't your parents some kind of super scientists?"

"That's what the crystals tell me. I found notations in a couple of the lessons. I think Kara was supposed to help me."

"Yeah apparently she's some kind of prodigy."

"I have heard that."

"And yet she got a degree in journalism and spent two years fetching coffee."

"Well to be fair it's not exactly like you can just pick up a whole other system of measurements and mathematics."

"I know." Kara still measured things in Kryptonian, which had led to some unfortunate purchased when she'd been charged with picking up poultry for Thanksgiving or Christmas.

"And we're basically Stone Age compared to Krypton."

"Be fair to yourself Alex, Dark Ages, easy."

He was grinning when he said it, and Alex had to grin back. Kara was the only one she'd ever joked with the differences about, and that hadn't been the same. Clark, raised on earth, had a more human perspective.

"What do you know about this Kryptonian we're meeting?"

"A lot actually. She's Kara's aunt."

Clark stopped, hand on the door. "The one behind Myriad?"

"She's reformed--or at least she's trying to." She motioned to the campus around them. "That's what all this is about. Proving she's not the slightly crazy woman who almost destroyed National City."

"Do you trust her?"

"Kara and I both do."

They took the stairs up to a lecture hall where Astra, in another hideous suit, was standing in front of a group of bored looking students. Alex would have been upset for her, but Astra looked just as bored.

Clark tried to take a seat in the back row, but the chair loudly squeaked under his weight and the entire lecture hall turned to glare at them. None had more savage a glare than Astra, whose eyes were suddenly dark.

The rest of her tedious lecture was said through gritted teeth, her gaze rarely leaving Clark, who fidgeted under it.

Finally a hapless and pleasant looking teacher's aid told Astra the hour was up.

"Please provide me with completed proofs by five this evening," she boomed to the quickly departing students. "Excuses will not be tolerated."

"She's such a hard ass," one kid mumbled on his way out.

"Knows her shit though," another said.

Astra did not move from her spot at the front of the class as the students filed out. She eventually dismissed her teacher's aid and continued to scribble in a notebook, pointedly ignoring Alex and Clark.

He glanced at Alex and she shrugged then slung her bag over her shoulder and headed down into the lion's den.

"Astra, this is--"

"Kal-El. He resembles his mother."

Clark was startled by her words. "You knew my mother?"

"In passing--primarily through my sister. She was pleasant and less frigid then most in the science guild."

Clark frowned.

Her eyes flashed to Alex. "Is there a reason you have brought him here?"

"Kara's out of town and he needed to talk to a," she dropped her voice, "Kryptonian."

"I do not think it would be appropriate for me to give him the talk concerning puberty." The brief twitch of Astra's lips was the only clue that she was joking.

"Don't worry," he said. "Picked that up on the streets here on Earth. I'm here about the New Gods."

She sighed and began packing her hard case briefcase. "I was off world for most of the peace talks. I only came back to see Kara exchange the children."

Okay. Astra hadn't mentioned that. Neither had Kara. She glanced at Clark, who was just as confused.

"Yeah," Alex said, "we're gonna need more than that?"

Astra sighed. "Darkseid and Highfather agreed that the best way to maintain peace was to exchange hostages. Their own sons. And rather than have them exchanged by soldiers it was decided children would do it, the same children they'd spent a year of the peace talks with. Kara was one of them."

"That's why she knows their language."

"No, that's from her talent with language--though I'm told her accent is impeccable."

"The creature that attacked, Kalibak. He was one of the children exchanged?"

Astra laughed. "He's Darkseid's first son. The child Kara gave to Highfather was called Orion. Although what I've heard since is that he's much kinder than his father. A pillar of all that New Genesis stands for."

"How could you have heard anything? You were in prison and then stuck on earth."

"And you think I stayed on Earth for the last twelve years?"

"You've been off world," Clark said softly.

"Of course. When I first landed I thought my entire family was dead. I built a ship and went back to look as soon as I could. When I saw what had happened--learned how long it had been--I wandered."

Alex gave her a wry smile. "And then came back to Earth and tried to destroy it."

"Save it," Astra said with a roll of her eyes.

"Kalibak told Kara the truce between Darkseid and All Father still stood," Clark said.

Astra nodded. "That's what I heard too."

"So why send Kalibak here? Your son destroying a major city seems like a pretty big fuck you to this truce."

Superman. Cursed. Apparently.

Astra was as surprised as Alex. "I don't know."

Clark was frowning--broad brow knitted in thought. "It doesn't make sense. You're scouting a new place you don't send a bruiser like Kalibak. You send actual scouts."

"And scouts wouldn't just start a fight with someone like Superman," Alex said. "They'd watch from the sidelines."

"Kalibak didn't start the fight with me." Clark said it distractedly, still peering at nothing in deep thought.

"Sure he did. He tore up a restaurant looking for you."

"That's when the camera saw him. First he destroyed a Court of Owls stronghold."

"He killed some birds," Astra asked in confusion.

Alex shook her head. "They're an organized crime outfit. Based out of Gotham. Why would he go after them?"

Clark shrugged. "Not sure. I heard some rumors the Owls were starting a term war with Intergang, but even that doesn't make sense. They're just a couple of gangs."

"No," she swallowed, "they're not."

Shit.

"The DEO has been investigating Intergang for possible connections with off earth weapons dealers, and I bet if you sort through that Court stronghold you'd find more of the same."

"Kalibak was after stolen weapons?"

Alex had zero desire to look at either of them. ”I don't know. Maybe. It's at least worth investigating. I can get a team out there by this evening."

Clark blinked. "No offense, but I'm not okay with the DEO operating in Metropolis."

Oops. So that was on the table now? Alex pushed through. "And warring gangs with super tech is better?"

"The gangs don't have something like Cadmus in their back pocket," he glanced at Astra, "and they don't call themselves heroes and then torture enemy combatants."

"It's a different DEO Clark."

"Middle management may have changed, but the bosses pulling the strings are the same."

"I understand approximately half of what you two are discussing," Astra said. "And I don't understand the disagreement. Kal and I can investigate."

Clark look as startled as Alex felt. She squeaked. "You?"

"He's a journalist and I oversaw a number of investigations in the military. I'm also the only one of us three with any significant experience with other aliens. It makes sense."

It actually does," Clark said, sounding surprised.

Astra stared patiently at Alex until she shrugged an okay too.

"Wonderful. Now you both need to leave, I have another class shortly and I don't need the students seeing me talking with you. They might think I have a life outside of the school."

***

Clark was quiet for exactly half of the trek back to the bus stop.

"Kara's aunt is..."

"Efficient."

He shook his head. "Kryptonian. You ever notice that little way they all seem to turn their nose up at humans?"

"And the tone--"

"Yes!" Clark smacked her shoulder. Just hard enough to sting. Exactly as hard as another human would. "I always feel like I'm talking to a snooty aristocrat when I deal with them."

"Kara's not bad."

"Most days."

Alex looked over at him. "When has Kara ever been Kryptonian snooty?"

"After Kalibak. A few times when we talked old traditions and stuff. She doesn't mean to, I don't think."

Alex remembered her when she first came to earth, too young, scared and too polite to be snooty. It was only math and science where she'd tilt her chin up and her eyes would grow hard. And even that stopped after a while.

The last time she could think of her doing it was when J'onn had questioned her religion after Astra's death. Or when the red kryptonite had consumed her.

Rare enough instances that it was easy to forget how scary her sister could be if she wanted.

How scary all of them could be.

***

"Superman knows about Astra?" Lucy was hissing her question because the club they were in was playing music loudly and they were surrounded by Intergang and their acquaintance with Kryptonians _really_ didn't need to be known.

Alex shrugged and accepted another shot from the bartender. At the other end of the bar Bruno cheered.

They'd committed another heist. Bigger than the last. Alex made sure there were no casualties. Bruno made sure they stole lots of money.

Then they'd headed to the club--Bruno'd insisted the heist was too big to celebrate with a bar crawl.

He'd also insisted Alex call her girlfriend.

As her real girlfriend was currently investigating Intergang and Court connections in Metropolis she'd called her fake one.

Lucy had come.

She'd worn a black dress that confused Alex, and drew every eye in the club.

And now she was hanging on Alex, breasts pressed into her arm and hissing angrily.

"It wasn't like it was going to last forever," Alex said out the corner of her mouth. "Kara would have told him sooner or later."

"How did they take it?"

"No murder," she shouted. Bruno just heard the tail end of the sentence and led the men in a cheer.

Lucy glared at the men. ”They're drunk!"

"It was a good night!"

She shook her head. Pressed her lips to Alex's neck. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. I think we might have a line on their friends even."

Lucy tugged Alex onto the dance floor. Pressed herself up against Alex. She wasn't the put together military lawyer or the girl next door Alex saw in pictures of her and James. She was intoxicating. Every movement demanding a responding touch.

"What kind of line?"

Right. Alex needed to look past the woman next to her. Focus on the job. "The Court and Intergang have been fighting. Kara's monkey friend put himself in the middle of it last week."

The facade broke for a moment and Lucy's eyes were suddenly alight with concern. "He nearly killed Clark."

"Lucy--"

But Lucy was holding her tightly. "We don't even know anything about him Alex. If he's part of it we need to step back. Reevaluate."

"I don't really think that's an option," Alex said. Her hand slipped into Lucy's hair. Her lips Grazed her temple. "Do you?"

"I can call J'onn off Cadmus. He can take over for you."

"And what happens to finding my dad while he's pretending to be me?" She shook her head. "I can't back off now Lucy."

Her lips brushed against Alex's. A maddening siren song. "And we can't lose you."

Alex was dumb enough to want to make the kiss real. To slip her tongue into Lucy's mouth and explore. Maybe while having her pressed against one of the columns supporting the loft over head. Lucy's nails dragging tracks across her skin.

She pulled back just enough to keep them apart. "I have to do this."

Lucy tucked herself into Alex and said no more.

***

They went back to Lucy's apartment afterwards. A mess of sweaty bodies crammed into a cab. Alcohol and the press of flesh from all sides blurred the line between cover and reality.

Alex's hand slipped beneath Lucy's skirt and stopped only when Bruno chuckled somewhere to the left of her. Her knuckle settled against the inside of Lucy's thigh. Tantalizingly--stupidly--close. She dragged her knuckle back and forth, Lucy's hitched breathing a song in her ear, her body an instrument under Alex's touch.

"Have fun," Bruno shouted over the knot of bodies as Alex and Lucy stumbled from the car.

They kept up the ruse as the car drove away, Alex pressing Lucy to the door of the building and sucking on her neck like the groan she pulled from Lucy's lips might reveal the secrets of the universe.

"Come inside," she gasped in Alex's ear.

Maybe it was the alcohol. Or the high of the work she was doing.

Maybe it was just because nothing in Alex's life ever made sense beyond Kara. It was all noise roaring in her ears. Distractions. Focused only by moments like these. When emotion overwhelmed all the furious racket in Alex's head.

"Okay," she panted. Her finger pressed up into the juncture of Lucy's thighs and the ensuing groan demanded being caught in Alex's mouth.

Taking the stairs was a frenzy of lips and teeth and hands where they had no business being and there was a whine in the back of Alex's mind. A voice telling her how stupid she was being. How selfish and cruel.

They fumbled together for Lucy's keys. As if parting would break the spell. Return them both to the reason they desperately needed.

The door burst open with their combined weight and the might have fallen if Alex didn't brace them.

But when she looked up through the bangs of her hair she saw two sets of bright eyes staring back.

Clark, dressed in his costume, had a blush as red as his cape.

But Astra, still wearing her silly suit from work, had a face carved of stone.

Lucy parted from Alex slowly. Almost reluctantly.

"We found more weapons when we went to check out the Court of Owls," Clark said, his voice soft. "Astra says they're New Gods-based."

Alex just kept looking from one Kryptonian to the other. Steadfastly refused to look at her fellow human beside her.

She swallowed. Tried to act like she hadn't been caught doing exactly what she'd been caught doing. "That's good," she said. "That's a lead."

"You're welcome," Astra said.

She was keeping her voice even and cool. More Kryptonian that Alex had ever heard her.

"Astra..."

Astra didn't want to talk, as evidenced by her bursting out of the apartment in a gust of wind.

Clark flinched.

"How much did you see," Lucy asked carefully.

He shook his head. "We saw you drive up. I stopped looking, but Astra..."

Shit.

"Shit," Lucy said.

"But you're drunk right? And under cover? I'm sure." Clark was trying so hard. That Kryptonian optimist standing strong in the face of facts. "I'm sure she'll understand."

Lucy gave Alex some kind of inscrutable look Alex was too tired to understand and then went into her bedroom, softly closing the door behind her.

That was Alex, and Clark's cue to leave. Instead Alex climbed out onto the fire escape, where a carefully maintain garden of herbs made it feel homey. She settled in between some spearmint and chocolate mint and huffed.

Clark joined her. Suddenly lithe and easy.

Must be the suit.

His cape was removed from his shoulders and gently placed around Alex's.

He, and Alex was profoundly grateful for it, didn't say a word. They just sat there for Alex didn't know how long.

Her stomach, empty accept for a thin coat of fruity booze, rumbled loudly.

"My mom says mint settles the stomach," Clark said. He reached over and snagged a handful, offering it gingerly. "I wouldn't know, but my mom's a great gardener. Knows this stuff backwards and forwards."

Alex took half the handful and shoved it into her mouth. "Your mom's right. They taught me the same in school."

It was a cool taste, like a peppermint, but with a hint of earthiness that was immediately soothing.

"I'm kind of a fuck up," she said softly.

"That's one way to look at it."

She smiled.

Clark smiled back and Alex had to wonder if it was a thing all Kryptonians could do, or just the ones she knew. Simple and kind Kryptonians who with bulletproof skin she had a bad habit of piercing.

She was expecting a lecture. She'd seen him give Kara one or two. Even James after that thing with Reactron.

Clark, especially in the suit, had a paternal quality.

But he seemed content to just sit with Alex a while.

Maybe that was one of Superman's powers. Knowing exactly what Alex needed.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well...this has been sitting on my hard drive long enough.

Cat managed to set Kara down with her back propped against the wall of the RV, but juggling a hundred plus pounds of bleeding Kry—person meant she did _not_ have time to stop Tycho before he stepped out and locked the door behind him.

She huffed and went to push her hair out of her face, which just led to her streaking Kara’s blood through it.

Shit.

She might have just gotten Kara killed. Kind, sweet, innocent Kara who wrecking balled her way into Cat’s life and didn’t let up, and didn’t back down, and seemed to be the rare person that genuinely cared about Cat without being related to her.

Shit.

Kara made a noise between an “ow” and a high pitched whine.

Cat glanced at her, then quickly stepped over her legs. “Towels. We need—we need to stop the bleeding.”

“Oh, this hurts.”

Cat had never been shot, but yes, she imagined it _would_ hurt. She came back with the towels, wadding one up and pressing it against the spreading red stain.

Kara hissed, and she was sweaty, but she looked more irritated than what Cat would have expected from a typical assistant just shot by a mad scientist in the middle of a South American jungle.

How did you apologize profusely for leading a girl to her death? “I may—“ Cat swallowed. “I may have miscalculated.”

Kara was laid out, her chin pillowed on her chest and her hands now holding the bloody towel to her wound, but she still had enough energy to glower.

Cat winced. “I thought you were Supergirl.”

Kara continued to glower.

“Which—which you apparently aren’t?”

She never knew, until this moment, that her assistant (who was apparently _not_ the heroic savior of National City) had enough spine to give her the kind of glare Cat normally dispensed to her own employees.

“If…I was Supergirl, why would you bring me to a pit of rocks that are supposed to kill me?”

“If you were Supergirl why would you agree to come to a pit of rocks that are supposed to kill you?”

“You—“ Kara sat up, impressive with the perforated abdominal wall. “You were trying to trap me into revealing myself as Supergirl?” Kara actually seemed…livid.

“Yes, okay. I thought you were Supergirl and I’m upset with Supergirl, so I took drastic actions—” Which might have just killed the best assistant she’d ever had.

“I—I can’t believe you! After me telling you, repeatedly, that I’m not her. _Proving_ it to you. She and I were in the same room—“

“And she’s friends with a shapeshifter—“

“After saying I couldn’t _be_ her for you, you just went and created a death trap to what? Force me to reveal myself?”

“Yes…if you were Supergirl, that would be…that would be accurate.”

Kara nodded. Suddenly very sure of herself. “You know this is why you don’t have friends.”

“Excuse you?”

“Or any lasting relationship outside of Carter.”

“I understand you’re very upset because you’ve been shot and I might be partially responsible, but don’t you think you’re crossing a line Kiera?”

“Right. Back to Kiera.” She sucked in a deep breath through her nose. “It was just one simple request Cat. One boundary I asked you to respect. That’s it. And instead you had to bulldoze through because Rao forbid you respect someone else’s wishes for once.” Kara’s eyes were suddenly very beady with fury. “You’re like Lex Luthor with a nicer hair line.”

How dare— “I—“

“You built a deathtrap to lure me into revealing myself as Supergirl. That’s—that’s Lex Luthor, Cat. Like two steps below building a super suit for diabolical purposes.”

“Well I didn’t _know_ the Kryptonite would actually be Kryptonite did I? I thought it would be an emotional trap—not a physical one!” She leaned back on her heels, “And did you just admit to being Supergirl?”

“Yeah, gloat when I’m wounded, surrounded by murder rocks, and there’s a crazy guy on the other side of the door!”

“You’re Supergirl.”

“Cat…”

It was the worst time to do it, but she still launched herself at Kara. Kissing her as ardently as that first time, in her bedroom, pressed against the door. “I’ve been wanting to do that for a while.”

Kara’s hand brushed some of Cat’s hair behind her ear. “You have terrible timing.”

Awful timing. “Sorry.” For a lot of things.

Kara swallowed. “We’ve got to get out of this RV and out of this pit.”

“Agreed.”

Kara’s grip on Cat grew tight as she used her to sit up a little more. She looked over her glasses. “He’s walking to the other side of the dig site. Talking with some workers.” She looked in what Cat knew was the direction of the elevator. It was like seeing Supergirl crammed into a Kara Danvers suit. Profoundly unsettling. “And the elevator is back up top.”

She really was Supergirl. “So we wait for someone to take it back down.”

“I’ve got a better idea. Help me up.”

It required a lot of miserable feelings on Cat’s part and a lot of grunting and biting back cries of pain on Kara’s. “My powers are weaker down here, but I think I’ve got enough left to get us out of the pit. Then you’ll just have drive us out of here.”

“I am sorry.”

“Save it for after we get out of the murder pit?”

That was fair. All things considered.

Cat helped Kara to the opposite side of the trailer, away from the door, and watched as she dug her hands into the side of the RV like it was constructed of pudding instead of metal and fiberglass.

Cat went through the new opening first and reached up to help Kara down. She was heavy, and worthless when not using her Supergirl powers to rip open recreational vehicles like tin cans.

Cat stepped close, circling her arms around Kara’s shoulders. “So you’ll just fly us out of here?”

Kara shook her head. She was completely soaked with sweatnow, and droplets sprinkled onto Cat’s cheek.

“I don’t think I can get the thrust I need. Just—“ She looped an arm around Cat’s waist and held her closer then leapt directly up and towards the side of the pit.

Her fingers dug into the stone as if it were clay and her feet braced against the rock face. She took a fortifying breath—not unlike the ones Cat hissed her way through when in labor with her sons. Then she leapt again. They sailed a good ten feet too high into the air and instead of landing neatly they fell, their bodies colliding into the jungle floor.

It was painful.

For Cat, a forty-something on her way to fifty-something. For Kara, and her perforated abdomen, it must have been considerably less pleasant.

She scrambled over and took Kara’s head in her hands. “Are you okay?”

“I really hate Nueva Malaga. Like. A lot.”

Cat pressed a kiss to her lips. “No time for a review. We need to get to the Jeep and get the hell out of here.”

***

Getting to the Jeep and out of Malaga and back into Argentina would have been a lot easier if the Jeep didn’t have the ass of Mercy Graves, notorious right hand woman of Lex Luthor, plopped down on its hood.

Cat made her way back to the tree that Kara was currently leaning against, and Kara got that same petulant look on her face that she did when Cat asked her to prep the monthly list of freelancers to let go.

“We have a problem.”

Kara winced. “Guys with guns?”

“Mercy Graves. Presumably with a gun, and maybe some armed goons lurking somewhere. You can never be sure with Lex Luthor’s people.”

“Are we sure she’s here to murder me? Maybe she figured out Tycho is crazy and came to stop him.”

Cat assumed the look she leveled at Kara was enough to tell Kara how stupid she was being.

“Right. Maybe not. Okay. Okay. How far do you think it is to the border?”

“Less than a hundred miles. Of course that’s all mountains and jungles and soldiers...”

“I could try jumping. We could…we could jump out of here.”

“After the last landing you stuck?”

“I might be able to do a few boosts of super speed.”

“How far do you need to be before the Kryptonite stops working?”

“Not far, but the problem is it’s everywhere. I started feeling it as soon as we crossed into Nueva Malaga.”

“And you didn’t say something.”

“I’m sorry Cat, secret identities are sacred to some people.”

Cat deserved that.

“So we super speed.”

Kara nodded. Stood up. Panted. “Just…just give me a sec.”

“You’re not actually dying are you?”

“No.” She wheezed. “It keeps trying to fix itself? But the Kryptonite is all—“

“Oh…that sounds painful.”

“Very.”

Cat tried to think of something witty to say. Maybe about it being payback. Or about how she’d make sure Kara saw a bonus in her next paycheck.

But Kara was too miserable looking for any of Cat’s bon mots to be worth it. So she slung Kara’s arm over her shoulder and put a supportive hand on her chest. “Come on Supergirl. Faster we’re out of here the faster we’re to room service in Argentina.”

That did the trick.

Kara took her by the waist and ran.

***

Cat had no idea how fast super speed was, so she couldn't tell how far they'd run. Kara just came to a stop, her shoulder smacking into the side of a tree and sending it crashing to the ground.

Cat was thrown clear and her hiking boots skidded on the slick jungle floor.

"What--" she pushed her hair out of her face.

Kara shook her head and pointed one red stained finger to the sky.

Cat couldn't see anything in the bright blue. Just scattered clouds.

"Listen."

There. Over the shifting of trees and the babbling of some brook Cat could, just barely, make out the familiar beat of helicopter rotors.

"You don't think they saw us?" Cat had no idea why she was whispering.

Kara panted. Looked skyward over the frames of her glasses. "They saw us. My speed was moving all the trees. Gave them a trail."

"So run faster."

"I can't."

Cat came closer, taking Kara firmly by the arms. "You have to."

The trees trembled as the helicopter descended. Kara whipped her glasses off and shoved them into Cat's hands. "Stay behind me," she said, and her shoulders were squared. Her chin raised defiantly.

The men in the helicopter had guns and blasé looks on their faces. Not the kind of looks she'd expect from men who had a superhero wounded and cornered.

The helicopter was nearly to the ground when Cat suddenly felt a wave of heat and the tail end of the vehicle lurched towards them. Cat curled away involuntarily and Kara wrapped around her like she was invulnerable. Like shards of flaming hot wreckage wouldn't hurt her as easily as a human.

Then she gathered Cat up in her arms and ran again.

Cat was vaguely aware of the heat of the wreckage. Of the yelps of men as Kara violently threw them away from the fire.

And Kara didn't run as quickly when she burst away. So Cat had time to look over Kara's shoulder and watch the men stagger in confusion.

"You saved them?"

"Just because they're trying to hurt us doesn't mean they deserve to die."

"If you could do all that why didn't we just take the Jeep back from Mercy?"

"How was I supposed to know I could do all that?"

"You just winged it?!"

"It's a perfectly valid form of heroism Cat."

God, the fact that Kara hadn't been killed before--that the goofy naïveté of Kara Danvers wasn't a facade--was honestly a bigger surprise than her being Supergirl.

***

Every minute in Nueva Malaga had Kara slowing down more and more. Until she was running just as fast as a car, or a very speedy motorcycle.

Which is how they caught up with Cat and Kara again. This time in trucks. Military trucks. They circled around Cat and Kara, spitting up stones as they jerked to a stop. Kara let Cat down gently and pressed her to her back, hands bracing Cat behind her.

"You shouldn't hide behind these soldiers," she called, voice clear and ringing with Supergirl's authority.

Doors on one truck snapped open, a sweaty Tycho and pristine Mercy stepping out.

"Pardon me for playing it safe," Mercy said. "Can't be sure with your type."

Cat spoke up, standing on tip toe to see over Kara's shoulder. "Nice to see your drinking Lex's Kool-Aid."

Mercy narrowed her eyes. "Nice to see its not just the Planet in their pocket."

Kara's fingers tightened around Cat.

"Ms. Graves I'm not looking for a fight this afternoon. We'd just like to walk out of here."

"You can't," shouted Tycho. "They can't," he repeated to Mercy.

She ignored him and jerked her chin in Cat's direction. "What about her?"

"She comes with me."

"So she can report about us trying to murder you?"

"Fair and honest press Ms Graves. Doesn't stop at attempted murder."

"Then I can't let you go."

"You can't stop us either.”

Tycho drew his gun. The soldiers fidgeted. "We can stop you," he said. "I see the bullet hole."

Kara squared her shoulders.

Then suddenly she was standing in front of Tycho. The gun went off. A mist of blood turned the last white parts of Kara's shirt pink as the bullet pierced skin but not bone or muscle.

But Tycho yelped too. Kara had him by the throat with her other hand, held him aloft. The now bloody gun crushed at her feet.

"You're letting us go," she growled, and Cat could see white points of heat forming behind her eyes. A constant, terrifying, reminder of Kara's alien nature.

Mercy waved to the men. "Fine. Go."

Kara dropped Tycho and then picked Cat up in her arms. "Mercy," she said, not looking over her shoulder. "Nueva Malaga doesn't have an extradition treaty with the US. You and Tycho should probably stay very far from any country that does."

Mercy laughed. "Come on. We had to try!"

"And now you can report to Luthor that you failed."

They ran again, Kara picking up speed as the border between Paraguay and Nueva Malaga loomed. Then Kara just...flew.

Gracefully leaping over the border and into the air. Wind whipped at their faces and tangled their hair. Cat, trying not to sound too surprised at the turn of events, stared dow at the ground, which was fast becoming a sea of trees interrupted only by eh peaks of mountains.

"You got your powers back?"

"They were never gone. Completely. But we're far enough from the Kryptonite that I no longer feel like I'm going to die."

"And now? Where are we headed?"

"I was thinking the hotel. Change of clothes might be nice, and maybe afterwards we could do dinner. Talk.”

***

Cat was a little worried about the hotel they were staying at and the kind of clientele it normally served. They only seemed mildly appalled by Cat and Kara's blood spattered state instead of horrified and reaching for a phone.

She and Kara parted ways at Kara’s door, where despite being covered in flaky remnants of her own blood she was still, suddenly, the nervous girl Cat was accustomed to.

“Dinner,” Kara asked. “I mean, after we get cleaned up.”

Cat held Kara’s gaze. “Dinner.”

Kara gave one firm head nod and disappeared into her room. No discussion. No invitation.

If she’d still just been Cat’s former assistant Cat would have been annoyed. If she’d been Supergirl she would have been offended.

Now that Kara was both Cat was flabbergasted. Standing in the hallway and searching for a reasonable response not just to the most recent exchange, but every that had happened during the course of the day.

She plodded back to her own room and stood under the shower spray until her skin turned pink.

Kara was waiting for her in the bar when Cat was done. Wearing a shirt neatly buttoned to the collar and a skirt three seasons behind the trend. It only worked on her because Kara seemed to posses the physique of someone who worked out every day, often for hours.

She pushed her glasses back up her nose and smiled as Cat came closer.

"I ordered you a drink. They have a really nice selection of mezcals."

Cat picked her drink up and started to sip it. Paused. "You're not joining me?"

Kara just had a bottled Coke in front of her. "Alcohol doesn't actually do anything for me. I usually drink soda or juice."

"So when you do drink, that's just..."

Kara shrugged. "Being social."

Cat considered her drink. Smoky and sweet with a brush of savoriness to it. “So when you do want to get drunk? Inebriated?"

“There’s a few alien alcohols that work. Fatal to humans.”

Cat wrinkled her nose. Kara nodded. “I’m okay with soda. And the occasion margarita when I blow out my powers."

"That can happen?"

"Very rarely. Usually heat vision related."

"Makes sense. Can't be an efficient use of all that solar energy you store."

Kara shrugged. Looked down at her Coke.

Cat studied her. “The thing today about extradition...boning up on your international law?"

"Yes, actually."

"Why?"

"I'm an alien being with godlike abilities who regularly steps in to solve the problems governments can't. I don't think anyone wants me reminding them of just how powerful I am."

"So you operate in a framework."

"It's polite."

"Very. Lying isn't though."

Confusion clouded bright blue eyes.

Cat leaned in. "Why didn't you tell me?"

Kara searched Cat's face, frowning. "Because right now you're looking at me and seeing two people."

Cat was ready to argue that. Point out that she only saw two people because Kara presented two.

But Kara rushed to finish. "Which is what I want. For the public there has to be two separate people. But," she fiddled with the glass bottle. "I like it, you know? People--you--look at Supergirl a lot differently than Kara Danvers."

"You're the same person..."

"But when you didn't have proof it didn't matter. My identity was off the table and I could just be...me."

"Great for you. Less great for the woman you've been sleeping with. Where did you expect our relationship to go if I was exclusively dating Supergirl?"

"Exclusive," Kara squeaked.

Cat didn't let her change the subject. She stared her down.

"I just wanted something I could control Cat."

"You're one of the most powerful beings in the planet. I have a hard time believing that's a problem for you."

"It is," Kara said softly.

"So what do you want me to do?"

Kara's eyes flashed. Then a goofy grin spread across her face. "Loaded question."

"I really don't think so."

Kara considered her for a long moment. Her throat bobbed. "Finish your drink."

Never breaking eye contact Cat did as Kara asked. On an empty stomach the alcohol burned more than she was used to.

Kara licked her lips.

"We should go eat," she croaked. She finished her bottled soda quickly. "I'm starving."


End file.
